How do you power a solar panel without sunlight? These scientists have an awesome answer.

[eridani]

http://www.upworthy.com/how-do-you-power-a-solar-panel-without-sunlight-these-scientists-have-an-awesome-answer?c=upw1

Scientists from China just unveiled an "all weather solar cell" that could turn even gloomy weather into glorious electricity by generating energy from raindrops.

In a paper published by the Angewandte Chemie Journal, the scientists explained that by cloaking traditional solar panels with a thin layer of graphene — a highly conductible carbon material first discovered in 2004 — the new panels can actually break down the salt found in rain on a subatomic level.

In fact, I'll just let the experts at Science News Journal explain the nitty-gritty details of this game-changing technology:

“The salt contained in rain separates into ions (ammonium, calcium and sodium), making graphene and natural water a great combination for creating energy. The water actually clings to the graphene, forming a dual layer (AKA pseudocapacitor) with the graphene electrons. The energy difference between these layers is so strong that it generates electricity.”

Got that? Basically, we might not need ideal weather conditions to generate solar power.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. How cool!

[NNadir]

2. I have the original paper before me.

Before noting that generating currents from salt gradients is a well known and often discussed technology known as "RED," Reverse Electrodialysis, let me quote directly from the text of the paper:

The bi-triggered solar cell was assembled on an indium tin oxide (ITO)-polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate by coating a TiO2 anode layer with thickness of around 10 mm, sensitizing with 0.5 mm N719 dye, and an ITO-PET supported Pt (Pt3Ni alloy) counter electrode (CE) for front irradiation and Co(Ni)0.85Se CE for rear irradiation. Subsequently the redox electrolyte having I/I₃^- couples was injected into the interspace between a TiO2 anode and a CE and the solar cell was sealed under hot press

It is well known that there isn't enough indium on the planet to make CIGS solar cells, also using ITO, a remotely significant form of energy; the cell phone industry is likely to entirely deplete the element in the next 5 to 10 years, since zinc ores containing this element are rapidly being depleted.

The idea of using this rare element to generate a few microwatts from a raindrop is obscene, and is like all the other cheering for so called "renewable energy," hearing what wants to hear rather than hearing what one needs to hear, if one is interested in saving the planet. The indium issue - and many related elements - is why the designation of so called "renewable energy" as renewable is at best an oxymoron, at worst a deliberate deception on the order of the deliberate deception also used by the failed and extremely expensive "renewable energy" industry when it continuously conflates energy with peak power (which may be available for a few minutes or seconds a day, if at all.)

As for RED, here is a paper that is at least 8 years old, pulled up at Random from the many thousands of papers written on the subject: Environ. Sci. Technol., 2008, 42 (15), pp 5785–5790

With 22,000 hits on this topic in Google Scholar, why exactly, is this so astounding?

By the way, the number of industrial scale RED plants is zero.

It's easy to see why we are getting what we deserve. We are entirely credulous, and this, more than anything else, is the real reason that the 2016 data on carbon dioxide concentration increases are astounding to the point of terrifying.

Have a nice evening.