Comments on: Nanostructured ‘sandwich’ boosts solar-cell efficiency almost three times

By: melajara

melajara — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 21:39:21 +0000

Well, there is uniformity of color for sure, but you could cut it in any shape you wish. Sculptures and even startling “black trees” i.e. your typical tree but with black foliage!

By: asiwel

asiwel — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 06:33:22 +0000

Well, yes … but we have been buying new computers and cell phones for some time now … and a year later, what do we have? A slow PC with little memory. And for that matter, people buy new cars all the time. Consider how they depreciate as you drive one off the lot! Why not consume solar cells the same way? … Installation, I supose.

By: Damon Montano

Damon Montano — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 06:03:30 +0000

This is exciting. Solar is the future of human energy. C’mon storage breakthrough….

By: Editor

Editor — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 03:49:53 +0000

Dan, regarding “able to collect infrared”: yes, as noted in Fig. 4 in the referenced paper (open access), the plasmonic cavity with subwavelength hole-array (PlaCSH) has a “normal incident reflectance as low as 5% and 10% average and absorptance as high as 96% and 90% average over a broad band (400 to 900 nm)” — that’s the full visible light spectrum and part (~750 to 900 nm.) of the near-infrared spectrum. Re “reflected and focused to power a steam turbine”: no, this design in based on energy absorption only (conventional PV cells). Re “is any kind of solar cell maybe cooler and/or darker when it’s connected to a load?”: the darkness (light-absorption) value is solely a function of the plasmonic cavity design AFAIK. I can’t answer your question on load effects on solar-cell temperature, but in general, current flow generates heat. http://www.pvresources.com/Introduction/SolarCells.aspx may have a better answer to that.

By: Bri

Bri — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 03:17:38 +0000

In the article they mention organic solar cells. Do they give any base line efficiencies for the organic designs that they used and what there final outcome was? It would just be nice to see how much closer they have come to amorphous silicon solar cells:.

By: Dan Robinson

Dan Robinson — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 01:23:29 +0000

Will this also be able to collect infrared, for which holes are even more subwavelength? Or will it be absorbed and heat transmitted to the back of the cell, where it can be collected for water heating? Or can some be reflected and focused to power a steam turbine?

And another question, is any kind of solar cell maybe cooler and/or darker when it’s connected to a load, taking some energy away, than when it’s not connected?

By: AZryan

AZryan — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 21:42:33 +0000

They’ll have plenty of space on roofs where they are mainly seen only from above. No doubt installers will get a little clever in hiding them too, so they’re hardly seen, or not seen at all from the ground. I don’t imagine there will ever be a need to paint or panel the sides of most houses/buildings with this. Groups will make laws or neighborhood rules to prevent that, and we’ll still be able to generate plenty of solar power.

I just want to see these continual awesome developments actually come out. Clearly the last hurdle though is installation cost, not panels.

By: Walter Baltzley

Walter Baltzley — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:37:52 +0000

Grid Parity by 2015!

By: Walter Baltzley

Walter Baltzley — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 18:36:32 +0000

Hence the need for ongoing GOVERNMENT investment in the technology…people don’t want to buy something that is going to be sold for half as much in the near future.

By: gaoptimize

gaoptimize — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:42:53 +0000

“At the rate batteries and solar cells are improving…”
As I stated in a comment a while back, the rapid advance is freezing my decision to invest in solar polar for my home right now. I very much wish I could see the effect of these advances in the cost/KW installed (which has been stuck at ~$5K for some time now) so I could act.

By: road_runner321

road_runner321 — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:29:21 +0000

This reminds me of the monoliths of Arthur C. Clarke. They had the same deep black skin, as if light was not reflecting at all.

By: Ian Clarke

Ian Clarke — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:11:28 +0000

A simple idea with knock-on effects for future advances. Great news! My only concern would be what this would mean for the future aesthetics of solar power. Having little to no light reflected will presumably create ‘black as soot’ panels, which is ok when you only want a few on the roof, but when we start painting buildings in photo-voltaic paint, you had better like black… and no ordinary black, but a spooky, unnerving ‘black hole’ black.

Or am I mistaken?

By: trakk

trakk — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:34:02 +0000

If this works on the field as well as it did in the lab, then this could be game changing.

By: Editor

Editor — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:57:53 +0000

It’s a dimensionless number, meaning it’s an only an efficiency ratio. The specific values depend on the substrate and its design.

By: Bri

Bri — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:00:10 +0000

What is the final efficiency? The article talks of the percentage of improvement but doesn’t give the final conversion rate.

By: Whittaker

Whittaker — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 09:51:48 +0000

Wonderful news. Elon Musk should try incorporate this technology in his next Tesla Motor car.

By: Spikosauropod

Spikosauropod — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 09:22:05 +0000

Wow. At the rate batteries and solar cells are improving, we will be beyond fossil fuels in no time at all.

In Washington State, revenue from gasoline sales has gone down to the point where it will be necessary to tax mileage instead of fuel consumption in order to pay for roads.