Grätzel Cells Still Need Improvement
Their inventor won the Millenium Prize, but they need to be cheaper to provide large-scale power.
Kevin Bullis 07/07/2010
- 1 Comment
This year's winner of the Millennium Technology Prize, Michael Grätzel, director of the Laboratory of Photonics and Interfaces at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, has appeared often in Technology Review for his work developing dye-sensitized solar cells (also called Grätzel cells). The solar cells can be flexible, transparent, and tinted just about any color you'd like--features that make them attractive for consumer goods and windows. We wrote about the first product to use the devices last fall--a backpack with a solar panel attached to the back for charging portable electronics.
They're not ready to replace crystalline silicon and cadmium-tellluride thin film solar panels, the kind sold today for rooftop and large-scale utility installations. Ultimately, when their cost is figured not by initial price, but rather the price divided by the total kilowatt hours produced during their warrantied life, they're not yet cheap enough. But Grätzel and many other researchers are hard at work to make them more durable, cheaper to make, and more efficient.
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edwardborland
7 Comments
Dye Solar Cells
Where the value of this technology shines is in its real world applications. Dye solar cells generate electricity regardless of the strength of the light striking the cell (from dawn to dusk). This makes them attractive for use in overcast areas and high density areas like the city.
Dyesol are a company who are commercializing the technology in Europe, Asia and USA. Now they have partnered with both Merck and CSIRO (Australian science research organisation) to improve the performance of the technology.
An environmental benefit of the technology is the small amount of energy required to manufacture cells compared with other PV technologies. Dye sensitized solar cells have a much smaller carbon foot print than most alternatives.
Work is underway that will soon bring building integrated photovoltaics to the market using dye solar cells. Dyesol are partnering with Pilkington to make windows and Corus (formerly British Steel) to make roofing.
It's safe to say that dye solar cells can be improved in terms of their efficiency. They aren't the first choice now for building a power station. But it's also fair to say their value as a technology is increased by their flexibility with respect to their application and silicon free, low energy manufacturing.
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