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This discussion relates to Technology Review's article Efficient, Cheap Solar Cells.

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  xformers
  

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  09/23/2008 04:46 PM

  Skeptic - Synical

  I guess my problem with this article is that it seems like just another in a long list of similar articles over the past year or so.  Each one has some "hook" to it concerning solar cell, cheaper, more efficient, etc., etc. and each one seems to "disapear" into oblivion, never to be followed up on, or come to the light of day.
  
  If I did not know better (and I may not), it seems that this sort of discussion comes up with various technologies, right at a moment when "someone" wants your money, wants people to invest.  Give people some "hope", give them a reason to want to and they will... it is human nature.
  
  Then... take the money and run.  Nothing has to ever come out of it all, since our collective memory will forget it and move on 5 minutes from now.
  
  Seriously though... In the last several years, I swear I have read a dozen (or more) different articles on a dozen different "advancements" for solar cells that never seem to come about.

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    itchyeyes
    

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    09/23/2008 06:46 PM

    Re: Skeptic - Synical

    I had a similar immediate reaction to the article.    I've seen so many articles like this in recent years, It's hard not to roll my eyes when I see a new one.
    
    I don't necessarily think that they're just doing it for the money.  A lot of these stories do seem based in real advances in technology.  I think the problem stems from the fact that many of these articles are based on laboratory or experimental results.  It's one thing to demonstrate something in a lab.  It's another thing to raise the capital, mass produce it, bring it to market, and rapidly grow your market share to profitable levels.
    
    I can see at least a few key stumbling blocks in that sequence.  For instance, it's one thing to ask people to pay 8-10 cents/kwh on a monthly basis, it's another thing to ask for the next 15 years worth of electricity bills all up front.  At the least, most people are going to need to finance such a decision, which adds interest charges, which means that it's not just good enough for solar cells to match the cost of other forms of energy, they have to beat it.
    
    Another problem is installation.  Building a factory capable of churning out state of the art cells en mass is easy compared to training the work force to install them if you're going to sell any kind of volume.
    
    I think solar cells are on a bit of a teetering point.  They look good on paper compared to other alternatives, but there are practical challenges that they face that make them lose out in most cases.

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    javs
    

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    09/24/2008 04:44 PM

    Re: Skeptic - Synical

    On my post Is this a Disrupive Technology? and my two posts under Small scale individual solar , under this article, there is an underlying message that I posted today elsewhere as A Barrier to Capabilities on the Grid.
    
    The question is: What effect has a flawed restructuring of the power industry (i.e., keeping the retail market closed with an obsolete monopoly business model insteado of business model innovations that will help integrate distributed solar, wind, etc., generation and storage) on resuts?
    
    In addition, the post Re: I hope its a breakthrough also applies and says:
    
    I also hope it's a breakthrough. Researchers are like baseball players they make homeruns, but also strike out. What's needed is that they keep taking turns at bat. At some point the solar home run is bound to come.
    
    To increase the incentives for researchers to take turns at bat, I have suggested to take down the barriers on the development of the resources of the demand side, as follows:
    
    The electric power industry regulations have a strong barrier to the development of the resources of the demand side. For any solar power breakthrough to be integrated to power system planning, operation and control a new market architecture and design is required to eliminate said barrier.
    
    The article is a good contribution to TR readers about one of the most important kinds of uncertain generation.
    

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  richoweng
  

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  09/23/2008 04:50 PM

  thinner silicon substrates

  Didn't we just read a few weeks ago that some clever fellows at MIT had come up with a better way of slicing silicon off of the ingot by using wire EDM had been accomplished.  If so it should be possible to slice the 100µm thick substrates.  Lets get these guys together and start producing these things.  Great work guys. 
  
  Just a thought why not build the backside of the mirror into parabolic troughs that can focus the incoming light onto narrow strips of the active silicon nmaterial and get a much bigger gain out of the expensive stuff.

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    Monsterboy
    

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    09/24/2008 11:25 AM

    Re: thinner silicon substrates

    I had the same initial reaction, for the same reasons. "What, again?"
    
    After thinking about it a bit, I realized that most of the innovations in solar I've been reading here happened in the past few years, and some were really just proof-of-concept.
    
    Also, you have to take each improvement individually; obviously you can't take the 2% increase from on article, add the 3% from another and the 20% and 30% cost reductions from two more and get +5% at half the cost. Some of these are very similar improvements to the same aspect of solar power, and the deluge of them creates an illusion of enormous growth that never comes to fruition. But, while it's not improving as fast as this makes one want to think, efficiency <i>does</i> keep increasing.

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  phoenix
  

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  09/23/2008 07:49 PM

  fun in the sun

  A number of years ago the Northern Alberta Solar Energy Society, along with the University of Alberta, sponsored a summer clinic where Wang Lee, an engineer/architect from Calgary, who had worked on some solar powered projects in his community, came and divided us into groups of six in order to show us how to construct a cheap and very efficient solar powered water heater similar to the one which he had installed on his own home. This was a simple system of copper tubes soldered together which were painted black and held in place with some angle iron, had a few feeder valves, etc. and was faced with some even simpler acrylic sheeting to intensify the effect of the incoming solar rays. The model that was eventually installed on one of the heritage buildings on the University grounds, worked like a charm the very first time it was connected and was capable of providing enough relaible hot water for a family of five. And if I remember correctly, the total cost of materials was about $120.

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