Solar Cells for Cheap

Technology Review (MIT) ^ | September 12, 2006 | By Kevin Bullis

[JamesP81]

Bottom line: how much would three medium sized panels on my roof cost me, and how much less would my monthly electric bill be?

[Constitution Day]

Absolutely amazing! Thanks for posting this.

[Drango]

But I think there is going to be more funding.

~sigh...I long for the day when solar is evaluated on it's merits rather than how much funding it gets.

[AdamSelene235]

With regard to the dye-cells, silicon has a much higher efficiency; it's about twice [as much].

Er, silicon cells are a lousy 10%. It would take a month for a 1 meter silicon cell to produce the energy in 1 gallon of gasoline.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Ping for later reference - good work posting this information!

[UB355]

check here

http://www.homepower.org

[aculeus]

http://www.konarka.com/

[Blueflag]

Bump for investment look also.

We **need** this in the mountains.

[Sundog]

Thanks for the link.

That looks like a promising company.

[Asfarastheeastisfromthewest...]

Very interesting post indeed. I just did a tour of a manufacturer of photovoltaic panels and they were saying that there is a real problem in obtaining quality ingredients. There were some other important things mentioned in the article - one is that the output is not degraded by operating at higher temperatures. I wonder what the expected life of this product might be and if it is affected by the temperature that it operates at.

[Abogado]

Or try http://www.otherpower.com/

Their homemade wind mills are interesting.

[longtermmemmory]

couple this with (http://www.cree.com) white LED's and we have a significant decrease in the demand for oil to power lighting.

I submit we need to have solar cell be a tax exempt product as a matter of national security. Less oil dependance equals increased national security.

[AdamSelene235]

I submit we need to have solar cell be a tax exempt product as a matter of national security.

They would work better if they were reality exempt as well. Sorry, did you people miss the bit where he said the technology is less efficient than silicon which already SUCKS?

[ibheath]

bump for later read.

[AdamSelene235]

Here's 60 square meters of cells delivering enough juice, well during the day, for a couple hair dryers.

Communication Research Laboratory, Tokyo.

Folks, solar doesn't work because Reagan defunded Carter's NREL, solar doesn't work because the energy density sucks. Geez.

[ModelBreaker]

They would work better if they were reality exempt as well. Sorry, did you people miss the bit where he said the technology is less efficient than silicon which already SUCKS?

He also said they were cheaper by a factor of 4 or 5. If he's right on his numbers, his technology will outcompete silicon based cells. Whether it's competitive with fossil fuels any time before the 22nd century is another matter. His numbers ($1.00 vs $0.50) suggest it's not currently competitive. But that's a lot closer to being competitive than silicon.

[AdamSelene235]

his technology will outcompete silicon based cells.

If Silicon cells were *FREE* they would NOT be a viable alternative for our energy needs.

Anybody who can do elementary school math should know this.

[Realism]

enough juice, well during the day, for a couple hair dryers

21,426kwh = 2.5 yrs. of electric(for me)= $3K

[ModelBreaker]

If Silicon cells were *FREE* they would NOT be a viable alternative for our energy needs

Does this mean that free silicon solar cells would not make us energy independent or that free silicon solar cells would not be economically competitive with existing electric generation. If the former, don't you think that's a strawman argument.

I'm genuinely curious about how free would not be viable. Could you explain it to me? (I'm pretty good at 'high-school math' but am not a silicon energy engineer--so pitch the explanation to about that level).