MIT Researchers Printing Solar Cells On Fold-able Sheets 44
An anonymous reader writes "Following up on earlier work in the field, researchers at MIT are developing a process to print solar cells directly onto many common forms of paper. 'The technique represents a major departure from the systems used until now to create most solar cells, which require exposing the substrates to potentially damaging conditions, either in the form of liquids or high temperatures. The new printing process uses vapors, not liquids, and temperatures less than 120 degrees Celsius. These "gentle" conditions make it possible to use ordinary untreated paper, cloth or plastic as the substrate on which the solar cells can be printed. ... The resilient solar cells still function even when folded up into a paper airplane.'"
Yes please (Score:1, Insightful)
Now mass-produce that shit and stick it on all skyward surfaces already, how fucking hard is it?
I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore! [youtube.com]
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GE Bets $600 Million on 2015 Solar Plant (Score:4, Informative)
From 2007:
"GE Engineer Sees Competitive Photovoltaics In Under 10 Years"
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/004702.html [futurepundit.com]
"A high ranking engineer at General Electric says in some parts of the United States photovoltaics will become cost competitive by 2015."
From this year (2011):
"Report: GE says fossil fuels, nuclear soon costlier than solar power"
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/intelligent-energy/report-ge-says-fossil-fuels-nuclear-soon-costlier-than-solar-power/6686 [smartplanet.com]
And:
http://gweedopig.com/index.php/2011/04/08/ge-bets-600-million-on-2015-solar-plant/ [gweedopig.com]
"General Electric Co made a big push in solar power, saying it will invest $600 million to build a new factory as it pursues what it thinks could be an up to $3 billion business by 2015. The largest U.S. conglomerate, which over the last decade has made itself a leader in renewable energy, said it has designed a thin-film solar panel that converts sunlight to electricity more efficiently than rival products today. The move is likely to ramp up already intense price competition, particularly for First Solar Inc, which uses the same thin-film technology as GE has focused on."
It is happening... Not the same as printing, but that will come too most likely...
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I would have mod'd the parent up but he forgot, "Now get off my lawn!".
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ACs are not entitled to use "Now get off my lawn!"
Now, get off my lawn.
And if we thought... (Score:3)
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Dude, it's even worse. The paper itself will e-mail the Secret Service when you print up a load of $20's.
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The public are already sick of the promises. Mainstream media should ignore anything not ready for sale. It's useless information except to scientists.
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It's useless information except to scientists.
So let's see what kind of website are we on, here? Does "News for nerds" ring a bell?
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So let's see what kind of website are we on, here? Does "News for nerds" ring a bell?
Yeah, I vaguely recall something like that 5 or so years ago.
intresting prototype (Score:2, Insightful)
Very low efficiency, currently at 1% un-optimised, but potentially as cheep as crisp packets , tough and very very light... Might be good for providing night lighting or power to low wattage diagnostic equipment for places like refugee camps especially if you can get the efficiency up, remember light bulbs are surprisingly less bright than the sun so, with LEDs this should work even at its current efficiency.
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Yes, if you watch the video of the solar cell airplane, they are only getting 1/2 A out of it when placed directly under an incandescent lamp. Granted, it isn't stated what the active area of the airplane cell is, or how that compares to what would be available from a higher efficiency cell in the same conditions. However, you won't be powering your shark mounted laser with it anytime soon!
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The correct value is 1/2 micro-A, the edit box ate the mu character I pasted in.
Printed solar-- again ? how many news releases ? (Score:1)
I've been reading about "printed" solar cells
for 10 years I think. Will they be in production
by 2099 ? What is the cost to produce NOW?
( per KW per surface area )
More important, what patents does MIT have and
will they release the patents to the public if the research
was done at public expense --- or more probably
paid for by other subsidized research?
Solarigami (Score:4, Funny)
The company that commercializes this tech will quickly fold.
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Due to de-crease in revenue?
I'm not Larry Niven (Score:2)
but I approve of this message [technovelgy.com].
Photovoltaic paint FTW! If only it weren't operating on the same deployment timeline as flying cars and strong AI.
Every 11-year-old boy's dream come true... (Score:1)
A Solar Powered Paper Airplane!
Tape a pager-motor with a small propeller onto it and you've got a paper airplane that can circumnavigate the globe !
How cool would that be?
-S
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A Solar Powered Paper Airplane!
Tape a pager-motor with a small propeller onto it and you've got a paper airplane that can circumnavigate the globe !
How cool would that be?
-S
Only if it can move fast enough to stay in the sun....
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Oh come on, that's only about 900mph! No problem!
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Don't care. (Score:1)
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But ... I like hearing about solar vaporware every other week :-(
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The cost of solar cells, the main component in standard panels, has fallen 21 percent so far this year...
Think about that. A 21 percent drop in price so far this year??? New technologies are bringing down the cost of solar at a really incredible rate. That's not some futuristic, maybe it'll be available some day technology. It's what's on the market right now.,
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Read down to the admission that it has pathetic output efficiency. They can measure the current on lab equipment. Unlikely they can do much of anything practical with it. An 8x10 sheet would be about as much juice as the solar cells in a solar calculator. If that.
VAPOR (Score:1, Interesting)
Finally doesn't sound too far off (Score:2)
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I think the efficiency is currently too low for any practical application. Not sure about the cost, but...
OTOH, this *IS* a research project. There's probably lots of ways to improve it, and maybe they'll get around to looking at them. But maybe they'll head off in a different direction, and leave development to someone else. This is normal.
FWIW, *I* am more interested in solar shingles. At low cost and reasonable efficiency...but with long durability. This is also being worked on, though by a differe
3d printing - the new beowulf cluster (Score:2)
imagine if you had a solar cell printer on thingiverse!
paperless world... (Score:1)
and where will the print them when the office/world goes paperless?