Dye-sensitized, silicon-free solar cells have passed an important viability test at a Chinese lab. Do innovations like this herald the age of cheap solar power?
The sensitized films, which are far less expensive than traditional photovoltaic panels, were previously known for their inefficiency, a plague on the entire solar industry (which only converts 15-30% on average) but thin-film solar in particular (the new record for this cell was 8.2%). Thin-film has achieved far higher conversion rates in the past, but the Chinese test is significant because the sensitized film it was using had no chemical solvents involved in the production–that is, in addition to being a renewable energy source, it was also eco-friendly, and will be easy to manufacture on an industrial scale.
There are different types of solar cells?
While traditionally solar is thought of one of two ways–passive solar, and photovoltaics, the development of dye-sensitized film has led to the emergence of a new solar technology. While passive solar is relatively cheap and simple, it doesn’t actually generate electricity. Passive solar is great for heating your home, or water, but only one of the forms of active solar can run all the cool gadgets that you own. This technology is called “photvoltaic” for reasons imminently clear to anybody that’s taken a classical language. The sun shines down onto a solar cell, which is packed with silicon modules, which form an electrical field when their electrons get excited by the sun’s rays.* The problem with photovoltaics is that they’re expensive to produce –silicon is a semiconductor, and the same properties that make it such a good solar material have caused it to be in high demand for the electronics industry, as well. Good luck finding anything that you use daily that requires power that doesn’t have silicon it it, now that processors are everywhere.
Thin film, therefore, works towards the same end, but travels a totally different route: it separates the tasks that the silicone inherently takes on by using a series of materials that, as it turns out, are smaller, cheaper, and far more easy to obtain. Titanium dioxide, for example, is frequently used in paint bases. The technology also has a dramatically lower manufacturing cost–thin film in production looks like newspaper being printed, at 1,000 feet per minute.
Why the Chinese lab test matters
Sensitized dye has always struggled with efficiency, like we mentioned above–even the versions made with the toxic solvents could only pull down about 11%. The easy way to compensate for this shortcoming is with volume, right? It’s clean, renewable energy.
Well, as it turns out, using volume to compensate leaves you limited to large-scale commercial applications for solar, a market that the thin film people want to be sure, but don’t want to limit themselves to. There’s also the issue of the thin film containing toxic solvents, which are carefully sealed inside. More volume means more chances for something bad to happen, unfortunately. Or it did–now that there’s a safe solution to the composition issue, and it’s becoming more and more competitive, there’s clean, SAFE, cheap solar tech on the horizon.
*Painfully oversimplified.
More Reading:
New Efficiency Benchmark For Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (EurekAlert)
Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells (Wikipedia)
Photvoltaic Cells (HowStuffWorks)
Solar thermal company Ausra opened on Monday a Las Vegas factory meant to produce enough equipment each year to provide 700 megawatts of power.
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A new report by The Climate Group on behalf of the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI) suggests that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced up to 15% over...
A new report by The Climate Group on behalf of the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI) suggests that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced up to 15% over...
A new report by The Climate Group on behalf of the Global eSustainability Initiative (GeSI) suggests that global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be reduced up to 15% over...
Filed under: Celebrities
Ah, Naples, the quintessential Italian metropolis -- full of beauty, history...and trash? This formerly gorgeous vision of European tranquility is losing its luster because the place is literally covered in garbage. The city's landfills are so packed that garbage collectors are leaving bags of rubbish on the streets -- and to make matters worse, locals are protesting to prevent new landfills from being opened. But it's Sophia Loren to the rescue! The 73-year-old actress is imploring the people of her hometown to work together and clean the mess. She told Italian newspaper La Republica:
"I beg you, with my hands clasped in prayer, to multiply efforts to remedy this tragedy."
And let me tell you -- when an Oscar-winning actress begs you to do anything, you do it. So come on, people of Naples -- pick up that trash!
[via Trend Hunter]
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The fact that both California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom have added their names to the Tesla Roadster waiting list shows a serious Golden State commitment to the green technology behind the $100,000 sports car. On Monday, the company returned some of the love by …
Filed under: Diesel, Mercedes Benz, USA
Click the ML320 BLUETEC for a high res gallery
Mercedes is expecting big things from its Bluetec badge, starting with its line of SUVs and crossovers. In fact, the German automaker expects fifteen percent of all if its utility vehicles to be sold with diesel engines. We think that figure may even be a bit low, considering that MB nearly sells that percentage already and is unable to sell the vehicles in the huge California market, among others. Though diesel prices are currently hovering a bit higher than already high gasoline prices, both Mercedes-Benz and AutoblogGreen expect that the roughly $1,000 Bluetec diesel premium will pay for itself in just over a year. When we got our first drive in the clean-diesel Benzes, we managed rather impressive mileage numbers in all three vehicles, both on the highway and in city driving.
Expect to see more of Mercedes' big diesel utes in green advertising. Stephen Cannon, vice president of marketing for Mercedes-Benz USA says, "We would like to give that Bluetec logo as much cachet as the term hybrid has." That will take some major marketing push, as the word "hybrid" is synonymous with green autos for many Americans.
[Source: Automotive News - sub. req'd]
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Filed under: Movies, TV and Books
Every year the Young Lions Competition in Cannes brings together young creatives from advertising agencies around the world and tasks them with making something spectacular on an incredibly tight deadline. The contestants are given a theme, then left for 48 hors to conceptualize, execute and film a 60 second spot encompassing that theme -- all on a Nokia Nseries device.
And this year the theme was climate change. Each team was asked to create a different spot for MTV Switch -- the TV channel's global warming initiative. The above video features the winning entry from Argentina -- which is exceptional -- but nearly all the ads were clever and entertaining attempts at inspiring their audience to change their environmental perspective. See all of the videos here, or check out our favorites after the jump.
From team Colombia:
From team Netherlands:
From team Canada:
From team Norway:
From team USA:
From team Germany:
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