Lower-Cost Solar Cells to be Printed like Newspaper, Painted on Rooftops
Summary posted by Meridian on 8/26/2009
Source: University of Texas at Austin
Author: n/a
A University of Texas, United States, chemical engineer is hoping to cut the costs of standard solar cell manufacturing costs to one-tenth of their current price, by replacing them with solar cells that could be printed like newspaper or painted onto the sides of buildings or rooftops. Brian Korgel has been working to develop a low-cost, nanomaterial solution to photovoltaic manufacturing, and he and his team have developed nanoparticle "inks" that can be printed on a roll-to-roll printing process on a plastic substrate or stainless steel. According to Korgel, "[T]hat's essentially what's needed to make solar-cell technology and photovoltaics widely adopted. The sun provides a nearly unlimited energy resource, but existing solar energy harvesting technologies are prohibitively expensive and cannot compete with fossil fuels." Korgel uses copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS) as a basis, a material that is cheaper and more benign in terms of environmental impact than silicon, which he had used previously. The team has developed solar cell prototypes with an efficiency of one percent, however, they need to be about 10 percent before there is any real potential for commercialization. The work has already attracted the interest of industrial partners and a proof-of-concept was recently shown in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. The article can be viewed online at the link below.
The original article may still be available at www.utexas.edu/news/2009/08/24/printable_solar_cells/
As tagged by Meridian Institute:
Energy:
Energy, Solar, Climate Change
Implications:
Human Enhancement, Governance, Economic Competitiveness
Materials And Manufacturing:
Manufacturing
Nanomaterials:
Metal Nanoparticle
Regions:
North America
Stakeholders:
Government, Academia
Minerals And Metals:
Metals
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