Solar cell could be cheaper than fossil fuel

[Chris]

By harvesting waste heat, researchers from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have for the first time built a solar cell with an external quantum efficiency over 100 percent.

A cell's external quantum efficiency is the number of electrons flowing per second in its external circuit, divided by the number of photons per second entering it, and is different at different wavelengths.

The best result for the NREL solar cell was 114 percent. it means, says the team, that solar energy has a competitive future, making it possibly cheaper than energy from fossil or nuclear fuels.

The team used a process called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG), whereby a single absorbed photon of appropriately high energy can produce more than one electron-hole pair per absorbed photon.

Solar cell could be cheaper than fossil fuel | TG Daily

 

[Mr. H.]

Bring it on.

Back out 11 million barrels per day of molecularly complex, hydrocarbon rich liquids.

Sell us on this shit just like we were sold on ethanol.

Give it your best shot.
Oh wait- you just did.

 

[daveman]

Solar could be cheaper than coal and oil someday, boys, so close the mines and cap the wells now!

 

[Mr. H.]

I could be wrong, but aren't you being a tad presumptuous?

presumptuous n. : taking liberties

 

[Crackerjack]

And this is supposed to be ready for mass production ... when?

 

[skookerasbil]

By harvesting waste heat, researchers from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have for the first time built a solar cell with an external quantum efficiency over 100 percent.

A cell's external quantum efficiency is the number of electrons flowing per second in its external circuit, divided by the number of photons per second entering it, and is different at different wavelengths.

The best result for the NREL solar cell was 114 percent. it means, says the team, that solar energy has a competitive future, making it possibly cheaper than energy from fossil or nuclear fuels.

The team used a process called Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG), whereby a single absorbed photon of appropriately high energy can produce more than one electron-hole pair per absorbed photon.

Ten years ago, NREL scientist Arthur J Nozik predicted that MEG would be more efficient in semiconductor quantum dots - tiny crystals of semiconductor - than in bulk semiconductors.

Quantum dots, by confining charge carriers within their tiny volumes, can harvest excess energy that otherwise would be lost as heat – and therefore greatly increase the efficiency of converting photons into usable free energy.

The researchers hit the 114 percent external quantum efficiency with a layered cell consisting of antireflection-coated glass with a thin layer of a transparent conductor, a nanostructured zinc oxide layer, a quantum dot layer of lead selenide treated with ethanedithol and hydrazine, and a thin layer of gold for the top electrode.

They claim the fabrication of quantum dot solar cells lends itself to inexpensive, high-throughput roll-to-roll manufacturing.

Solar cell could be cheaper than fossil fuel | TG Daily

How many times have I said that this guy has the political IQ of a travel sized shampoo bottle?

 

[Iridescence]

How China dominates solar power

Huge loans from the Chinese Development Bank are helping Chinese solar companies push American solar firms out of the market

• • reddit this
• Comments (41)

• Stephen Lacey for Grist, part of the Guardian Environment Network
• guardian.co.uk, Monday 12 September 2011 09.10 EDT <li class="history"> Article history
  
  An employee displays a solar panel at a workshop in a factory in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. Photograph: LANG LANG/REUTERS
  
  Armed with tens of billions in loans from the Chinese government, Chinese solar companies have scaled at a rate unthinkable only a few years ago. At the end of this year, there will likely be 50,000 megawatts (MW) of manufacturing capacity in place around the world, with much of that new capacity being developed in China and other Asian countries. (In the year 2000, there were only 100 MW of production capacity worldwide.)
  In four years, the solar manufacturing sector shifted from being led by a geographically dispersed number of companies to one dominated by Chinese companies. In 2006, there were two companies from China in the list of top ten cell producers. In 2010, there were six, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. There are currently only two non-Asian manufacturers in the top ten, and those companies -- First Solar and Q-Cells -- have shifted a lot of their production to Asia.
  So what happened? How did the Chinese come to completely dominate the solar industry in such a short period of time?
  Bryan Ashley, the Chief Marketing Officer for Suniva, an American company that produces high-efficiency solar cells in Georgia, doesn't mince words.
  "The Chinese strategy is very clear. They are engaging in predatory financing and they're trying to drive everybody else out of the market. When you've got free money you can out-dump everybody below cost," Ashley said in an interview with Climate Progress.
  That "free money" Ashley refers to is the cheap debt provided by the
  Edited, link to read the rest of the article
  Source:
  
  How China dominates solar power | Environment | guardian.co.uk
  
  

 

[Truthmatters]

Just think if we had listened to Carter all those years ago?

we would be making a killing in solar.

Instead the big energy got to keep selling more oil and kept certain families VERY wealthy even if we had to fight wars for their benifit.

You have been had you clowns and your response to being had is "please have us some more".

 

[Iridescence]

Sheesh... TM, you post as though it's the end of the world... really... it's not too late to make some adjustments.

 

[Truthmatters]

I know its not too late.

But it is too republican in our government to make the adjustments

 

[Mr. H.]

Just think if we had listened to Carter all those years ago?

we would be making a killing in solar.

Instead the big energy got to keep selling more oil and kept certain families VERY wealthy even if we had to fight wars for their benifit.

You have been had you clowns and your response to being had is "please have us some more".

Carter syphoned billions of dollars from this country's petroleum industry, forced thousands of companies out of business, and put tens of thousands out of work.
U.S. oil production plummeted as a result, and imports soared.
He was an idiot, Obama is an idiot.

 

[zzzz]

It may be awhile before we can buy it but there are other methods that are closer to reality and this one doubles output and cuts cost in half which should promote more Solar purchases in the very near future.

Natcore Technology Inc. (TSX VENTURE:NXT)(PINKSHEETS:NTCXF) has been granted a patent license agreement from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to develop and commercialize a line of black silicon products--including equipment, chemicals, and solar cells---based on NREL patents. The license grants Natcore exclusivity in the field of diffused emitters with liquid phase passivation.

"Double the output, halve the cost," says Natcore President and CEO Chuck Provini. "That's our mantra. To make solar cells cost-competitive, we must reduce their cost and increase their output. The combined NREL-Natcore technologies will reduce cost by eliminating the need for thermal oxidation. And they'll increase output by enabling cells to be more productive throughout all daylight hours.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/20/idUS129480+20-Dec-2011+PRN20111220

 

[konradv]

Solar could be cheaper than coal and oil someday, boys, so close the mines and cap the wells now!

CFLs are cheaper than incandescents today, but people are still complaining. Your comment is totally worthless, IMO.

 

[daveman]

Solar could be cheaper than coal and oil someday, boys, so close the mines and cap the wells now!

CFLs are cheaper than incandescents today, but people are still complaining. Your comment is totally worthless, IMO.

Your opinion is worthless.

And where are you shopping? CFLs are still more expensive than incandescents everywhere I look.


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[chikenwing]

And the efficiency at NIGHT?? is what 0% while improvements are good and we should continue solar is not a magic pill. won't run my work van,trucks,won't heat my home day and night,does some during the day,when its sunny,not very often.Binghamton NY or should say glomeington is a very cloudy place. supplements for the near future at best.

 

[skookerasbil]

Greens hate energy&mdash;Nicolas Loris - NYPOST.com

 

[Mr. H.]

Green is Red.

As in Commie Red.

 

[Wiseacre]

There are all kinds of new innovations going on in the energy sector. Maybe 50 years from now people will look back at us and wonder what the hell we were thinking. By then fossil fuels will be long gone.

 

[Mr. H.]

Why does Chris never post in his own threads?

 

[RollingThunder]

Green is Red.

As in Commie Red.

LOLOLOLOL......that's about as insane a statement as I've heard in a long time, outside of the Republican Presidential debates anyway.

Are you really that confused and deluded or are you just putting us on?