Cheap, spray-on solar cells developed by Canadian researchers

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/cheap-spray-on-solar-cells-developed-by-canadian-researchers-1.1913086?cmp=rss

by fraqed • 13 years ago

42 13 13 years ago

OK, great, where can I buy a spray-can's worth?

Now, as facetious as that may sound, I'm quite serious. I've been watching Nano Solar and their promise of $1/watt solar energy for years, and I have yet to see it in practice. I'd honestly love to be able to drop $50 on solar cells and know that I can produce 50 watts of power (at peak), but since Nano Solar is only selling to industry, the end consumer is left in the (coal) dust until this stuff catches on.

I guess ultimately, I'll be watching this company now, too. Maybe I can become Walter White, and start "cooking" solar cells at home based on their article.

toomuchtodo• 13 years ago

Nanosolar is bankrupt, and their assets are/were sold off: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Nanosolar-Thin-F...

mchannon• 13 years ago

Solar panels can be regularly gotten for under $0.80/watt these days.

You'll have to spring for over 150 watts to get that price range.

grannyg00se• 13 years ago

"The fact that they’re “so cheap to make,” she added, means they will only have to reach 7.5 per cent efficiency before they will be commercially competitive with conventional energy sources such as coal-electric generation."

How does that make sense? If I have to cover my entire yard with this stuff to get a decent amount of power that doesn't compete well.

eigenvector• 13 years ago

They're clearly referring to commercial energy production (i.e. solar farms) not DG applications like rooftop solar. People don't commonly have coal-fired thermal plants in their yards either.

jccooper• 13 years ago

And what efficiency are they at now? Must be really terrible. University press release doesn't say, and article is paywalled (for science!). Maybe at the scale they're currently at they don't even know.

Good luck to them getting it higher; thin film silicon can get up to 20% cell efficiency, and should eventually be pretty cheap, so they'll have to get it reasonably efficient to be useful.

umsm• 13 years ago

Well, how about not thinking of reducing your dependence on conventional energy sources to zero, but to reduce it down to 20%.

If it would cost you $1k to purchase and install, but it would save you $1k in 5 years, wouldn't it be worth it?

I thought of it more in terms of "baby steps" instead of covering my entire yard.

contingencies3• 13 years ago

Space inefficiency is an issue in an era where more and more people live in apartments and have no yard. While Canadians can revel in spatial wealth, meanwhile in the realistic future-preview world (over here in Asia) every square meter of land is in use. Usually at multiple levels in a high vertical stack.

mapt2• 13 years ago

Space inefficiency is an issue that ubiquitous low-efficiency solar power does not have at all: Land is simply not a particularly scarce commodity somewhere within a few hundred kilometers of your house. Space inefficiency is only an issue for the concept of the power infrastructure being 100% distributed as some kind of local self-sufficiency element. May as well be growing your own wheat.

Even so, an average-sized residential roof will generate quite a lot of power relative to what the inhabitants use on all but apartment towers - and those are usually surrounded by enough parking, on which we can build sunshades with solar panels, to compensate.

contingencies3• 13 years ago

Land is simply not a particularly scarce commodity somewhere within a few hundred kilometers of your house

"Got rice?" Not here in Asia, where most people live.

The developing world is rapidly urbanizing and moving in to - you guessed it - apartment towers. The world at large is also moving away from cars.

What is your idea of an 'average sized' residential roof, anyway? Perhaps you are aware that US houses have the largest floorspace per capita of anywhere in the world, except Australia?

No offence but it looks like you have a very North American (chiefly US) perspective.

zackmorris• 13 years ago

A rallying cry for open source if I've ever seen one.

Cheap, spray-on solar cells developed by Canadian researchers

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