

Solar cells thinner than wavelengths of light hold huge power potential - cwan
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2010/september/nanoscale-solar-cells-092710.html

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brc
I wish all these solar tech announcements would turn into products. Two years
ago I was reading about new solar paint that would revolutionise solar power.
Then it was printable panels that would drive down solar panel costs. There's
always these announcements coming out, yet buying a solar panel still has a
very long term payoff because of the high cost. I'd be solar-ed up tomorrow if
I could make the numbers add up. Tired of the hype - show us products to buy.

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Retric
This is BS, we already have 30+% efficient solar cells and _10 times more
energy from sunlight_ would = 3x energy gain.

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liamk
30% of what was theoretically possible with thick film. I think this research
is saying that what is theoretically possibly with the newer technology could
be 10 times more.

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ph0rque
Yeah, I would like to see real percentages of all the sunlight hitting a given
cell that is converted to electricity.

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tlb
And of course, sunlight has a wide range of wavelengths and it's almost
impossible to convert >1000 nM light to electricity, so you can't get close to
100%.

The problem with current cells isn't efficiency but cost. 5% efficient cells
that were cheap (including mounting & protection) would be a breakthrough.

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anamax
> The problem with current cells isn't efficiency but cost. 5% efficient cells
> that were cheap (including mounting & protection) would be a breakthrough.

It depends. My house has a finite amount of roof space.

If a solar farm has to be too big, it can only be very remote and then there's
a distribution problem. (Consider road sign lights. You'd rather not run wires
to them, so "on sign" solar is a natural, but size matters.)

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tlb
You're right about remote applications, of course. I'm thinking about
replacing coal with solar on a large scale.

Roofs are a silly place to put solar cells. Like everyone growing wheat on
their roofs. Farms are the right model for harnessing lots of sunlight to grow
food or make electricity.

