An inexpensive technique for making high-quality nanowire solar cells

"Solar or photovoltaic cells represent one of the best possible technologies for providing an absolutely clean and virtually inexhaustible source of energy to power our civilization. However, for this dream to be realized, solar cells need to be made from inexpensive elements using low-cost, less energy-intensive processing chemistry, and they need to efficiently and cost-competitively convert sunlight into electricity. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has now demonstrated two out of three of these requirements with a promising start on the third.

Peidong Yang, a chemist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, led the development of a solution-based technique for fabricating core/shell nanowire solar cells using the semiconductors cadmium sulfide for the core and copper sulfide for the shell. These inexpensive and easy-to-make nanowire solar cells boasted open-circuit voltage and fill factor values superior to conventional planar solar cells. Together, the open-circuit voltage and fill factor determine the maximum energy that a solar cell can produce. In addition, the new nanowires also demonstrated an energy conversion efficiency of 5.4%, which is comparable to planar solar cells." www.rdmag.com... 54332&linkid=http%3a%2f%2fwww.rdmag.com%2fNews%2f2011%2f09%2fEnergy-Solar-Energy-An-Inexpensive-Technique-For-Making-High-Quality-Nanowire-Solar-Cells %2f

This technology is important because it can produce solar cells using only solution chemistry and common, low-cost materials. Solar power will become more common as prices fall and this technology will give impetus to additional research that will advance it further.

It will last only as long as it takes some oil company to buy the patent and sit it on the shelf. The only way we will ever have goo/cheap PV cells is if someone posts the designs open source so anybody can make them.

I have to confess I find this very interesting. Which is why its so unfortunate that your link appears not to be up to muster. I couldnt get the clickable part to work, and the rest doesnt seem to give me anything when I copy past to my URL bar. Care to tweak it?

Thanx for the post OP. Im keen to try this on something I have been working on. Keep it up.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by TrueBrit


It worked for me. Here is the original source to try: newscenter.lbl.gov... owire-solar-cells/

ETA: This link gets into the LBL news releases and this one is from Aug 31st: newscenter.lbl.gov...

reply to post by pteridine


Superb ! Thanks a lot... This tech seems to be a bright hope for the future. Im just wondering how far the new method could be refined. I agree that such discoveries should now be made open source. Can you imagine how much less reliant survival would be on money earning capability, if solar power could provide ALL ones energy needs? This will never come to pass unless this sort of discovery is handed out free, to be added to currently expensive kit like cars, homes, and so on.

Sure, this tech hasnt made the solar cell so much better that not owning one would be dumb, but when such advances come along, they must NOT be allowed to cost a bunch of cash,because if they do, they will be unable to be utilised by the persons that need them.

This reminds me of the last last solar break through printable solar panels it was a huge break through but they will only sell to energy giants every day consumers like us will never get cheap solar panels for our house imo

en.wikipedia.org...

im sure the same will happen with this tech not for the poor or the normal people just for the billionaires and mega corps so they can make more money makes me sick.

reply to post by pteridine


I work for a solar company in Arizona......LOL...what a freakin joke. I came home early today sick, because I am tired of lying to prospective customers about tax incentives, rebates....etc.

When this stuff actually becomes affordable for all the people who really need it, then there is hope.

$30,000 to install a hot water heater alone is a bit stiff, even for a wealthy person.

"There's a sucker born every day," is oh, so true.

While I would love to see people reap the benefits of this technology, it's pretty out of reach for most.

Originally posted by Blanca Rose
reply to post by pteridine

 

I work for a solar company in Arizona......LOL...what a freakin joke. I came home early today sick, because I am tired of lying to prospective customers about tax incentives, rebates....etc.

When this stuff actually becomes affordable for all the people who really need it, then there is hope.

$30,000 to install a hot water heater alone is a bit stiff, even for a wealthy person.

"There's a sucker born every day," is oh, so true.

While I would love to see people reap the benefits of this technology, it's pretty out of reach for most.

An Arizona hot water heater might need only a coil of copper tubing in black sand and a pump to circulate it. The efficiency of making electricity and then heating water with it is such that one should collect heat directly if possible.
The technology is out of reach now which is why DoE and the IRS are subsidizing it and may take 30 to 50 years to transition.

Originally posted by Blanca Rose
reply to post by pteridine

 

I work for a solar company in Arizona......LOL...what a freakin joke. I came home early today sick, because I am tired of lying to prospective customers about tax incentives, rebates....etc.

When this stuff actually becomes affordable for all the people who really need it, then there is hope.

$30,000 to install a hot water heater alone is a bit stiff, even for a wealthy person.

"There's a sucker born every day," is oh, so true.

While I would love to see people reap the benefits of this technology, it's pretty out of reach for most.

While current solar technology is far too expensive, inefficient and fragile, this does not always have to be the case.

What the OP speaks of is a worthy goal and a considerable leap towards an ideal solar solution.

... and while you speak of suckers, some are educated and altruistic enough to put their investment behind something which has great value for all of us, in the long term.

I use solar energy to heat the water in my house (supplemented by conventional electric water heating in cold months). It only cost about NZ $6,000-00 to implement and now, after two years looks as if it will pay for itself in savings in less than seven years.

The guarantee on the solar installation is for 20 years and so it is highly likely that, as an investment, the installation is to our (the investors) advantage.

If your company charges so much for solar technology to heat water, in a state noted for its desert, perhaps it needs to simply be more reasonable in its expectations and go for very simple, cheap and proven technology.

Originally posted by Blanca Rose
reply to post by pteridine

 

I work for a solar company in Arizona......LOL...what a freakin joke. I came home early today sick, because I am tired of lying to prospective customers about tax incentives, rebates....etc.

When this stuff actually becomes affordable for all the people who really need it, then there is hope.

$30,000 to install a hot water heater alone is a bit stiff, even for a wealthy person.

"There's a sucker born every day," is oh, so true.

While I would love to see people reap the benefits of this technology, it's pretty out of reach for most.

This, my fine associate, needs a thread of it's own.