Perovskite Solar Cells Beat New Records (In The Lab)

[ScienceRocks]

Perovskite Solar Cells Beat New Records (In The Lab)
Perovskite Solar Cells Beat New Records - In The Lab

News from the frontier of perovskite solar cell research:

A team at China’s Huazhong University in Wuhan, working with pioneer Michael Grätzel at Lausanne, have fabricated cells without a hole transport layer, and done it by dripping a solution of the ingredients on to a carbon mesh. The cells have gone 1000 hours, a typical year’s exposure outdoors, without degradation.

Meanwhile researchers at Sheffield University in England have made a working cell simply by spraying a solution of their patent gunk on to a surface – could be anything really, flat or curved.

Neither cell is efficient. At 12.8% and 11% respectively, they are well behind the perovskite solar cell record of 19.3%, let alone the 21% of production monocrystalline silicon cells. So why the fuss? Isn’t this another scheme which looks good in the lab but fails in the market, defeated by silicon through simply getting cheaper?

 

[waltky]

'Blackhole of light' to be used in CSP plants...

Solar's Future Looks Brighter
October 30, 2014 ~ Scientists have created a new solar power material they call the “black hole of light” because it can absorb and convert to heat 90 percent of the sunlight it captures.

A team of researchers at the University of California at San Diego developed the silicon boride-coated nanoshell material that can be used in concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, according to a news release. Researchers said the new material could increase the efficiency of CSPs by about 30 percent. CSP plants consist of thousands of mirrors, which reflect sunlight at a central tower covered in a light absorbing material. The concentrated light is converted to heat which can power a steam turbine that produces electricity. CSP power plants work by heating molten salt, which can be stored in thermal storage tanks and continue to produce energy even when it’s dark. This is a big advantage over photovoltaic cells, which stop producing energy at night.

Researchers said one big advantage of their material is its durability: It withstands heat of over 700 degrees Celsius and can survive exposure to other elements. They added that the plants are more efficient at higher temperatures. Currently, CSP plants have to reapply sunlight absorption material about once a year, meaning the plant is not producing energy during the maintenance. The UC San Diego team says their material has a longer lifespan, adding they are “close to achieving” a material that will last for “many years.” CSP plants currently produce about 3.5 gigawatts of energy globally, which is enough to provide electrical power to more than 2 million homes. That number could rise to 20 gigawatts in coming years.

A concentrating solar power plant in Primm, Nev., is seen in this file photo. The site uses over 300,000 mirrors to focus sunlight on boilers' tubes atop 450 foot power towers heating water into steam which in turn drives turbines to create electricity.

There was also good news about solar power in a report released by Deutsche Bank this week, which said rooftop photovoltaic energy will be as cheap or cheaper than other sources of electricity in 47 U.S. states by as early as 2016. The report, written by Deutsche Bank’s leading solar energy analyst Vishal Shah, assumes the U.S. will continue a 30 percent tax credit on solar system costs. The credit it due to expire in 2016 as well. According to the report, even if the tax credit were to be cut by two thirds, solar power would still achieve parity with other forms of electricity in 36 states.

Currently solar power costs the same as other sources of electricity in only 10 states. The report says the amount of electricity from solar panels in the U.S. could be 16 times greater in 2016 than it was in 2008. These trends in solar come at a time of dropping fossil fuel prices, which usually triggers a loss of interest in solar. Earlier this year the International Energy Agency said concentrating solar power plants could provide 11 percent of the world’s electricity by 2050. Photovoltaic systems could account for another 16 percent, the agency said. Currently, solar power accounts for less than one percent of the world’s electricity needs.

Solar s Future Looks Brighter

 

[mamooth]

Imprinting solar cells with the same pattern as Blu-ray discs drastically improves their efficiency.

Jackie Chan Blu-ray disc boosts solar panel efficiency by a massive 22 ExtremeTech
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To increase the efficiency of a solar panel by 22%, the researchers at Northwestern bought a copy of Police Story 3: Supercop on Blu-ray; removed the top plastic layer, exposing the recording medium beneath; cast a mold of the quasi-random pattern; and then used the mold to create a photovoltaic cell with the same pattern. As you can see in the image above, this process actually makes the nanopatterned solar cell have the same iridescence as a Blu-ray disc. [Research paper: doi:10.1038/ncomms6517]

The end result is a solar panel that has a quantum efficiency of around 40% — up about 22% from the non-patterned solar panel. As you can see in the graph above, the nanopatterning increases the solar panel’s absorption and efficiency across the entire range of 400-700nm wavelengths (visible to near infrared).
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[elektra]

So that makes all installed solar, obsolete, garbage, the world's largest in physical mass, in size.

Imagine being saddled with today's current, garbage solar and seeing this, and you got a 25 year guarantee and payments on obsolete grabage, expensive junk.

 

[Old Rocks]

So that makes all installed solar, obsolete, garbage, the world's largest in physical mass, in size.

Imagine being saddled with today's current, garbage solar and seeing this, and you got a 25 year guarantee and payments on obsolete grabage, expensive junk.

What a fucking dummy you are. Imagine being stuck with a five year old working automobile. And someone else has a new rig that gets better mileage, has more power, and looks better to boot. Of course, yours is paid for, and his isn't. Whether computers, autos, or solar panels, technology marches on, and, today, five years is as obselete as 20 was 50 years ago.

The people with the present panels will continue to use them until they wear out, and then buy the new technology, just as we do the T.V's and any other major purchase.

 

[elektra]

So that makes all installed solar, obsolete, garbage, the world's largest in physical mass, in size.

Imagine being saddled with today's current, garbage solar and seeing this, and you got a 25 year guarantee and payments on obsolete grabage, expensive junk.

What a fucking dummy you are. Imagine being stuck with a five year old working automobile. And someone else has a new rig that gets better mileage, has more power, and looks better to boot. Of course, yours is paid for, and his isn't. Whether computers, autos, or solar panels, technology marches on, and, today, five years is as obselete as 20 was 50 years ago.

The people with the present panels will continue to use them until they wear out, and then buy the new technology, just as we do the T.V's and any other major purchase.

The are stuck with expensive obsolete solar that is vastly outperformed by the new technology, but I guess Old Crock expects people to ride in a "horse and carriage" for another 25 years

 

[Old Rocks]

Now look at this silly ass, Elektra. First compalns that solar will never work, then is bitching about the fact that the technology is proceding at such a clip that present tech will be obsolete in a couple of years. Kind of like computers. The one I am typing on has a windows operating system about three systems back, and it is over three years old. Yet it works just fine for what I am doing.

Problem is, poor old Elektra has been playing the man yelling 'get a horse' at passing autos for so long, he is completely afraid of the new tech. Ah well, let him toddle off to the old folks home, and piss in his pants while he waves his cane and babbles about how the world has gone to hell.