The Chinese Solar Machine Layer by Layer Fire in the Library The Mystery Behind Anesthesia
(Page 2 of 2)
"The biggest problem is the risk associated with transitioning from pilot line to successful commercial production," says Ken Zweibel, who heads up thin-film research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, CO. "There's a tremendous amount of manufacturing development implicit in that -- and it's always underestimated by outsiders. It's incredibly subtle to make square miles of novel semiconductors every year at 95 percent yield."
But while the solar-cell industry is maturing, the ultimate technology for the industry remains in doubt. Billy Stanbery, CEO of a CIGS solar-cell startup called Heliovolt, in Austin, TX, says he thinks profits from second-generation solar technologies such as the one his company is developing will in turn be a major source of funds for research into yet another generation of solar technologies.
In fact, such research is already happening, and could get a boost from new funding for basic solar research in next year's federal budget. Third-generation solar technology will be designed to break through a major problem with today's new technologies, which, although they are cheaper and easier to make than crystalline silicon cells, are not much more efficient at converting sunlight to electricity.
Nanostructures could help change this, says Arthur Nozik, a senior researcher at NREL. One promising method, he says, uses nanostructures such as quantum dots, known for their unusual electronic and photonic properties, to divide the energy from each photon into multiple electrons, which can then generate current. This work has the potential to more than double current solar cell efficiency, he says, which could help solar power finally emerge from being a niche fossil-fuel alternative, albeit a booming one, to a mainstay of energy production.
Guest (Tom C)
Life-cycle Solar Cell Efficiency
A topic seldom mentioned in solar energy discussions is full Life-cycle Efficiency. Not too many years ago, with crystaline Si, cells required more energy than they produced over their lifetime. While still being useful for load shifting, thats not a home-run situation with respect to energy independence, global warming, etc. What is the full life-cycle efficiency of current day cells?
Guest (BILL)
I have variously heard 3 years and 3.5 years to produce the energy it took to produce the cells.
Guest (Lee Dekker)
A solar cell requires energy to produce, energy to deploy, energy to maintain and eventually energy to decommission and to recycle. If the energy consumed, between production and recycling, is less than the energy produced during the lifetime of the cell, a gain of "new energy", or a "net energy gain" has been achieved. That's the equation and it follows for all solar cells regardless of their longevity.
Guest (gary)
We should look at the life cycle of all energy production including the collateral costs associated with pollution and destruction of the environment. I think sometimes we take a much to myopic view when it meets the needs of the discussion. Just make sure energy costs associated with resulting health problems are factored in your cold hard calculations about energy net gain and loss. What if the solar cell factory was completely powered by solar energy?
Guest (Bob S.)
That is an idea I have been waiting to here come about. A solar cell mfg plant that covers its roof and parking lot with solar cells. To me that would indicate that their method produced efficient economical power.
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
Guest (Tom C)
Life-cycle Solar Cell Efficiency
A topic seldom mentioned in solar energy discussions is full Life-cycle Efficiency. Not too many years ago, with crystaline Si, cells required more energy than they produced over their lifetime. While still being useful for load shifting, thats not a home-run situation with respect to energy independence, global warming, etc. What is the full life-cycle efficiency of current day cells?
Reply
Guest (L)
take a look
http://www.energybulletin.net/17219.html
Reply
Guest (Eric)
Life-cycle efficiency
Arguments like this are repeated about alternative sources of energy with tiresome frequency, as if proponents were not capable of simple economic projections. At least nobody (yet) has pointed out that solar installers fall off of roofs, and this cost must be factored in. Life-cycle constraints (and cost of accidents) apply equally to new coal mines, oil wells, refineries and nuclear plants.
Reply