| The Power of Plastic Solar |
| Written by Hank Green | ||
| Tuesday, 17 July 2007 | ||
 Making solar cells from plastic is a very good idea. Plastic is cheap, right? So, maybe if we can make solar cells out of plastic, they will be cheap too. Well, that's certainly the idea. Which is why we're so excited that a team at UC Santa Barbara recently created a new kind of plastic solar cell that has a 6% efficiency, and could be as efficient as 10% in the near future. Now these are significantly less efficient than silicon or thin film solar cells, but they are also orders of magnitude cheaper. Scientists say they expect to be marketing the technology in by 2015 and the cells will produce electricity at roughly ten cents per watt, cheap enough to be competitive with coal. Via PhysOrg
Comments
(4)
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written by jack , July 17, 2007
Are these plastics made from petrochemicals?
petrochemicals
written by Hank , July 17, 2007
Yes...but I think we can all agree that this is a better use for oil than burning it...or y'know, making soda bottles.
That's Only Part Of The Problem
written by Mike@HCVN , July 17, 2007
For residential use, the price of the solar panel is only half the problem. Installation, inverters, and optional batteries need to streamlined no matter how cheap the solar cells get. Lower efficiency cells actually increase the installation costs per kw since you need more panels to get the same amount of energy.
Mike http://hybrid.tashcorp.net
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written by Joel , July 18, 2007
Lighter-weight, more-flexible cells could make installation a lot simpler, in fact.
If you have 400 lbs. of brittle silicon that has to be bolted onto re-enforced roof framing and sealed against intrusion by rainwater, that would take a professional. But if plastic cells are done right, it could end up being more like putting up Christmas lights. You're right that inverters are expensive now, but I think lower-cost cells will help that, too, by driving up rates of production and allowing manufacturers to exploit the mind-boggling economies of scale that electronic devices are subject to. As far as batteries, I'm convinced that individual homes shouldn't have them unless there isn't a reliable grid connection. If your grid goes out on you, the cost of a battery backup is probably worth it anyway. For most of America, solar will be a way to take the edge off of peak demand. Any solar that gets toward baseline power should probably be a central project, like storage-hydroelectric, or thermal storage in large solar thermal plants. | ||
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