Panel that works in the dark puts solar on fast track to ubiquity
'Third-generation' photovoltaics promise to make solar power possible everywhere, from solar roofs to see-through solar windows. Is the age of ubiquitous solar finally upon us?
SOLAR EVERYWHERE: Today, Chinese apartment blocks are covered in bulky angled solar panels. Tomorrow's promise — solar laid flat and built in. (Photo: Xu Wanglin/ChinaFotoPress) 
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OK, we have an infinitely powerful nuclear fusion reactor several minutes from Earth. Let's use it the way that resourceful humans can. How much land on earth is not suitable for development? Deserts? Oceans? If we put even a fraction of the subsidies from oil into renewables, problem solved.
I have been a fan of solar for quite some time, so stay up on the latest tech, I am also a retired Imagery Analyst so understand quite well the electromagnetic spectrum from UV to LWIR and beyond. Having read multiple reports of multi-layer solar PV cells that have both visible light and infrared light collecting abilities and then comparing that with camera sensors that use layers to record different wavelengths, I can easily see that a multi-spectral PV cell would produce more power over a.... More
Oil from genetically altered Algae is the only carbon-neutral solution that requires almost no change in infrastructure or lifestyle. Algae exists in the lab with produces oil so pure, it needs no refining. It consumes as much or more CO2 as is burnt from it's oil. We need to scale up this tech so that, e.g., much of the SW US becomes algae farms, and become a net+ oil producer.
The Algea oil industry should sync up with the US Ethanol industry as a full 1/3 of thier out put is CO2. For every bushel of corn that goes in 1/3 goes out as ethanol, 1/3 goes out as DDGs and 1/3 is exhausted into the atmosphere as CO2.
It was refreshing to see this comment.
Solar could be used in so many ways to reduce the need for the burning of fuels. Lights could be converted to 12 volts as one simple change.
But back to alga. For anyone who has not yet heard of alga to fuel, go to youtube and enter Valcent alga. Be prepared to be amazed and possibly a bit angered that this is not getting the support it should.
The CEO is positive their system of growing alga in a greenhouse environment could supply.... More
How times have changed...for the better?....
In the line at the store, the cashier told the older woman that plastic bags weren't good for the environment. The woman apologized to her and explained, “We didn't have the green thing back in my day.”
That’s right, they didn’t have the green thing in her day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, Coke bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, using.... More
You folks bashing the potential solar power need to get educated.
Solar technologies are advancing faster than you are giving them credit. I work in the semiconductor industry and with power electronics. The rates that we are improving efficiency for leading edge technologies is very exciting -- and real.
I really don't know what you are trying to accomplish by being skeptical without having worked in the field to know what is possible and what is not. I'm just glad that there.... More
Living here in Arizona where the sun is out 360 days a year or even in the new ones
supposedly in the dark. No one can afford them for eons from now.
I'v got a physics degree or two from the old days and about 25 years in R&D in a few different industries. People are confusing photon flux with photon "energy". In low light conditions you don't get "tired" photons, you get fewer of them. Since the panels are designed to work with photons of a certain ev level, they will indeed just get less and less current output as light level goes down. If you can see in the light, then you can certainly convert it to something else. Take out your.... More
I been interested in Solar & Wind energy since I was a small child over 40 years ago. But the stark reality of promises versus results is still dismal. Sure NASA uses Solar Cells for Satellites and GM's Sunracer ran across Australia. But the cost/benefit equation still has a ways to go to replacement or even come close to competing with Fossil fuels or even Nuclear Energy (fission). Too often manufacturers and businesses hype the product to make money. The City of Reno, Nevada has real time.... More
I see a lot of whining and " cant do" in the comments below. That is not the attiude that made america great. What solar lacks in power it makes up for in other ways. No pollution after manufacture, recycle easily after 30 year lifespan. Will never do a Fukishima. No radioactive waste to deal with. Plenty of roofing space. And free.
Imagine a power company who sets up your system and maintains it. You get a free thirty year roof, first off. You pay half of what you are paying now for.... More
How many scoffers and critics were there when the lightbulb was in the R&D stages. Why dont you people who do nothing but complain and and say it cant be done just SHUT UP and go back to your dreary bored life!
My father worked in the auto industry in Michigan. His engineering colleagues stated in the 70's that no 4-passenger car could ever exceed 30-35 mpg. It was simple physics, they said. People who dreamed otherwise were "greenie tree-huggers," yuck yuck yuck. For their companies, their can't do attitude became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Meanwhile, someone else in another country had a can-do attitude and did it. My Prius IV averages 50.2 mpg, including mountain driving with plenty of.... More
I have a PV setup at my house that I built 10 years ago for fun (6X50W panels from Siemens). PV panels are fine. It's the rest of the system that is not. To have your solar setup power your appliances at night (without being connected to the grid) you need to store all that energy. In my puny setup batteries weigh 500 lbs, bulky and need replacement every now and then. My biggest cost (and inconvenience) is not PV. Pushing energy to the grid gives me nothing when storms knock it it out. Many.... More
Thats because the power company needs to get into the act. On a grid connected system, there are no batteries. You feed power in during the day, and take it out at night. Some systems large enough produce more power then you use. Some places allow you to sell that extra power.
Battery solar systems will only work on very small scale, or for super efficient people
All you have to do is design the cell so that it accepts more diffused radiation than they do now. A cell that is shaded that works on diffused radiation does not care at all about how much sunlight it gets as far as the majority of its power.
Whenever anyone says, "All you have to do . . ." I have to laugh. Do it then, if it's so simple in your view.
Jim,
I'm going to go ahead and assume you have little to no technical or theoretical experience with solar cells. By varying the make up they can vary the frequencies of light that are absorbed by the panels. I myself am not directly involved in any solar industry, but have taken a number of classes, taught by industry experts, on the whole solar situation. I'm not going to promote just solar as the answer to our problems, and I personally thing wind is a major issue... but with the.... More
I live in oregon and have a cabin at the coast .it rains alot here and is cloudy alot but my two 85$ solar panels keep my batteries charged very well.solar does work well. just think of where solar technology would be if all the money wasted on nuclear power had been put into solar r&d.9AC5P
That means your power consumption is virtually nothing. Your 85$ panels are maybe 15 watt each? You collect maybe 100 watts on a good day?
The Dyesol solar panel works in low, indirect sunlight. The company was founded by a husband-and-wife team with half a century of combined experience in advanced solar energy research. Their technology has received more than $20 million in funding by the Welsh government, Tata Steel and Pilkington glass company, and it is the centerpiece of the retooling of an entire production line at a major steel-roof manufacturing facility in Wales.
Dyesol's technology not a hoax or a con. There were no.... More
@ Chris - What is your background that they manage tı get you to believe this stuff?
Even if they captured 100% of available light at my home this minute the output would be very, very low. It is quite dark outside. Insolation records zero and so does UV. Maybe a little IR but not much of that either.
This is like a wind turbine that starts turning at very low wind speeds - nice but as at low wind speeds there is very little energy available to capture.
End result is nothing.
I don't care who they managed to sucker into funding the thing - a dog is a.... More
If you think those two fans were being powered by cells in deep shadow you are gullible. Look for the hidden batteries.
More likely capacitors. I think the author (and apparently the Welsh government), has been taken by con artists. Of which there are many in the venture capital industry.
Ever step on the hot asphalt with your bare feet? If so, you know how much energy the Sun produces, and how horribly inefficient our solar panels are at collecting it. The best of them are less than 22% efficient. It's not hard to imagine a solar panel that's 90% efficient being able to turn two fans in the shadows.
the old joke about the moron who says his country is planning the first manned space missiin to the sun. 2nd guy laughs and tells him how idiotic that is, that they'll burn up. 1st guy laughs back and tells him they got that covered, they're going to fly there at night!
Brilliant! I was about the write the same thing when I saw that you already had. Is this a late April Fools joke?
As long as America keeps funding oil companies and puts next to nothing in alternative energy R&D it is headed for the tank.
Green chatter? Have you any idea of R&D expenditures over the years?
The answer is obviously no - you are parroting a line you hear from one of your little green friends:
are parroting big oil proponents - you know - the ones that dont want any other type of energy to encroach on their huge profits!
Hardly a fan of any company but one description of green is that science and engineering have no meaning - whatever a person wishes can come true.
This joke is one of those wishes.
Just another spamming naysayer. Nothing to see.
And it is just this type of thinking that has held America back while other countries are doing it. I hate to bust your britches, but most of the scientist fit under the "green" category, it is the morons who support big industry who keep parroting that we have to find more oil or more radioactive sources. Fact is, "green" technology is on the rise in every country but the US. Guess we will go into a dark ages.
For the last 35 years I have been hearing news reports about amazing solar cell breakthroughs and then all goes quite like the company that can print solar cells on different materials so we can have solar power at a dollar a watt, don’t want to be the bearer of bad news did you know that each panel on those roofs in China is rated at 15 watts in direct sunlight and cost around 55 dollars wholesale?
Cheap solar cells have been promised for the last 15 years. Guess what - they are still expensive
Check out the private company Nanosolar regarding inexpensive solar panels. At last check, they have sold out their production for the next three years. Not available for residential use, but still can't be that expensive either.
You can find solar PV panels for between 90 cents and 2$ per watt - depending on type etc.
Solar powered flashlights at night here we go!
Anyone using Cleantechnica as a source must be really hard up.
1) Last I knew it was bought to be the advertising arm of 1BOG.org
2) The bloggers Cleantechnica uses are space cadets - neither foot is on the ground much of the time.
Solar in the dark - myocardia is 100% correct - the photosynthesis analogy is rubbish.
...and unfortunately, just as possible. It isn't possible to harness energy that wasn't there to begin with. It seems that there are as many morons in Parliament as there are in the US Congress.
You know the energy comes from the sun right? Plants grow from photosynthesis, some plants prefer the shade, and grow very large, without direct sunlight. This technology mimics that, as well as allowd for direct sunlight.
Please elaborate myo.
Sounds easy to make. now i have a defence when people say "if there shaded there useless" SWWEEEEETT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
