Posted on 01/15/2017 11:17:42 PM PST by aquila48
Solar cells made from an inexpensive and increasingly popular material called perovskite can more efficiently turn sunlight into electricity using a new technique to sandwich two types of perovskite into a single photovoltaic cell.
Perovskite solar cells are made of a mix of organic molecules and inorganic elements that together capture light and convert it into electricity, just like today’s more common silicon-based solar cells. Perovskite photovoltaic devices, however, can be made more easily and cheaply than silicon and on a flexible rather than rigid substrate. The first perovskite solar cells could go on the market next year, and some have been reported to capture 20 percent of the sun’s energy.
In a paper appearing online today in advance of publication in the journal Nature Materials, University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists report a new design that already achieves an average steady-state efficiency of 18.4 percent, with a high of 21.7 percent and a peak efficiency of 26 percent.
“We have set the record now for different parameters of perovskite solar cells, including the efficiency,” said senior author Alex Zettl, a UC Berkeley professor of physics, senior faculty member at Berkeley Lab and member of the Kavli Energy Nanosciences Institute. “The efficiency is higher than any other perovskite cell – 21.7 percent – which is a phenomenal number, considering we are at the beginning of optimizing this.”
“This has a great potential to be the cheapest photovoltaic on the market, plugging into any home solar system,” said Onur Ergen, the lead author of the paper and a UC Berkeley physics graduate student.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.berkeley.edu ...
Neat!
I am sure they will also amp this up by somehow employing graphene into this mix as well.
So how does this efficiency compare to that of silicon based photovoltaics?
“So how does this efficiency compare to that of silicon based photovoltaics?”
It can actually be additive... so together they get near 50% efficiency.
https://cleantechnica.com/2016/12/31/perovskite-layer-boost-solar-cell-efficiency-20/
Interesting and it sounds promising like all of these ideas and “breakthroughs” do.
There is one guarantee in the world of energy - change. Yesterday, tomorrow, and next year there is innovation and something new. Eventually, there will be new ideas that radically changes energy so much of the “debate” we see today may be meaningless tomorrow.
Per the article it is a few percentage points more efficient than the standard silicone panels. It sounds like the major breakthrough beyond a point or two of efficiency is costs and ease to produce.
So it degrades very rapidly when exposed to light, air or water. Just how does one gauge the performance of a solar cell that degrades when exposed to light? And, this question comes from someone who is something of a fan, of the possibilities of solar. This one’s sounding pretty pie in the sky.
I KNOW NOTHING! At least when it comes to the solar stuff. The best thing we can do for the industry is pull the rug out from all it’s subsidies.
Absent the obvious cronyism, I actually don’t even mind the subsidy. Practically everything else in the energy sector has been or is. I’m interested in the individual autonomy that solar could promise. I couldn’t care less about the “green” aspect, other than that it might get the control freaks off my back as far as imaginary carbon emissions.
bfl perusal
A free market in such things as this is wonderful. What isn’t wonderful is when government arbitrarily picks a winner, even if it is not the best in class (e.g. Solyndra).
It is because of relentless competition to improve in engineering that we went from the vertical scans of Stooky Bill to the flat panels that most of us are sitting before, if not using their miniature version in smartphones. Let good solutions give place to better, and then even better, solutions.
Quiet revolutions like this, rather than government fiats (which are ludicrous in technological fields), could evolve the world past the need for fossil fuels, if other events do not intervene. I don’t think technology is going to be the bottleneck for mankind. I think spirituality will be.
I’m waiting on Beamreach Solar—aka Solexel—to unveil their second generation solar cells this year. Their business model has changed. Hundreds of patents, light weight modules, and solar cells capable of withstanding temperature extremes-what could possibly go wrong in the solar industry? Also they claim the process they use can make extra large wafers of other than silicon materials—super cheap if possible.
I don’t see a practical lid on “what we can make.”
The lid is found in “why we want to make it.”
And I could see technologies like this used to help lift large areas of Third World off the ground rather quickly, getting them the blessings of electricity without the need to bring in fossil fuels or arrange widespread power transmission. There’s no reason these areas have to recap the history of the First World on the way to their respective paradises (figuratively speaking). The people have different expectations, and they will view different things as wonders. They may want to visit the First World, but won’t need to in order to see a greatly improved manner of life. In fact they may view the First World as somewhat spoiled. We had to electrify EVERYTHING, rather than just what made the most sense.
I don’t want the government picking winners or losers in the energy field.... we tried it - it sucked.
I would love to see our government put resources towards the next energy revolution - thorium. I still believe the science behind the molten salt reactors for this much more plentiful (and cheap) fuel that cannot be weaponized holds tremendous promise. Consider it another “man on the moon type effort.”
I think solar at this point (and in the near future) only has localized and specialized application, but if these things were competitive I would definitely line the southern facing side and roof of my barn with it!
Good you bring that up.
All photovoltaics degrade. The professor knows this and he knows the importance of the question to the new material arrangement. So he has some explaining to do and my bet is he has a solution or set of such. But it’s not yet patented.
The first filer to post a solution to the degrade problem can make a ton. The race should be on already with this announcement
Even governmentally financing thorium has that same risk... we might ensconce some sub-optimal thorium technology.
I’d say that the answer will be encouraged by evolving ideas of what is acceptable behavior from a nuclear reactor. If it needs to be independently powered, for one thing, to avert a significant disaster — maybe this will become intolerable, like we would not countenance a car that had no seat belts, whatever freedom we might like in actually using them.
Degrading is acceptable if it is slow enough, and the redeployment cheap and easy enough. This is why we still have a market for the humble flashlight battery.
The modules are for commercial flat roof design on buildings that where extra weight is a problem. May be used differently later.
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