A Material That Could Make Solar Power “Dirt Cheap”

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/517811/a-material-that-could-make-solar-power-dirt-cheap/

[font face=Serif][font size=5]A Material That Could Make Solar Power “Dirt Cheap”[/font]
[font size=4] Researchers discover that a material known for a hundred years could lower the cost of solar power.[/font]

By Kevin Bullis on August 8, 2013

[font size=3]A new type of solar cell, made from a material that is dramatically cheaper to obtain and use than silicon, could generate as much power as today’s commodity solar cells.

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Researchers developing the technology say that it could lead to solar panels that cost just 10 to 20 cents per watt. Solar panels now typically cost about 75 cents a watt, and the U.S. Department of Energy says 50 cents per watt will allow solar power to compete with fossil fuel.

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Perovskites have been known for over a century, but no one thought to try them in solar cells until relatively recently. The particular material the researchers are using is very good at absorbing light. While conventional silicon solar panels use materials that are about 180 micrometers thick, the new solar cells use less than one micrometer of material to capture the same amount of sunlight. The pigment is a semiconductor that is also good at transporting the electric charge created when light hits it.

“The material is dirt cheap,” says Michael Grätzel, who is famous within the solar industry for inventing a type of solar cell that bears his name. His group has produced the most efficient perovskite solar cells so far—they convert 15 percent of the energy in sunlight into electricity, far more than other cheap-to-make solar cells. Based on its performance so far, and on its known light-conversion properties, researchers say its efficiency could easily rise as high as 20 to 25 percent, which is as good as the record efficiencies (typically achieved in labs) of the most common types of solar cells today. The efficiencies of mass-produced solar cells may be lower. But it makes sense to compare the lab efficiencies of the perovskite cells with the lab records for other materials. Grätzel says that perovskite in solar cells will likely prove to be a “forgiving” material that retains high efficiencies in mass production, since the manufacturing processes are simple.

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[Kolesar]

1. A perovskite structure is any material with the same type of crystal structure as ...

... calcium titanium oxide (CaTiO3), known as the perovskite structure, ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite_(structure)

[Spitfire of ATJ]

2. I was hoping it would be chitin....

New York is already a roach ranch.

[Fumesucker]

3. That's all we need, solar powered roaches

I can just imagine the little bodies out on the window ledge sunning themselves, recharging their batteries for yet another night of scurrying around your kitchen.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

4. Good point, solar panels that run from the light.

[Yo_Mama]

5. More on the company working to develop this

http://www.oxfordpv.com/

They are actually citing 8% efficiency with a near term advance to 10% and a hoped-for advance to 14%. However these cells should be cheap to produce.