Skinny Sliver Cells Could Cuts Solar Costs by 60%
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 12.11.06
An Australian National University researcher claims to have invented a technology that could cut the cost of producing solar panels by more than 60 percent. According to Professor Andrew Blakers, director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems at the Australian National University system works by taking a standard solar cell about one millimeter thick and cutting it into tiny slices that are just 120 micrometers wide. "Imagine a standard solar cell is a loaf of bread. When you put it out in the sun it generates energy based on its surface area. Now imagine you cut that loaf up into slices and lay them horizontally. You get a lot more surface area," he said. According to him, the technique also allows researchers to use much smaller amounts of expensive silicon to generate the same amount of electricity.
“This can also keep manufacturing costs down, as all the processing steps normally carried out on solar cells are done while the slices are still in the "loaf". We're looking at major reductions in the total cost without the need for major scientific breakthroughs. It's about doing a good engineering job using known scientific principles, in contrast to some other technologies. The sliver technology is also efficient at converting sunlight to electricity,” he said.
:: Via News in Science
Hoooray !!
Note to the editors: It's a "sliver" cell, not a "silver" cell. Check your headline.
Also interesting: The context implies that the cell is made of slices of a polycrystalline cell, but the article refers to it as a thin film cell. Probably just the reporter got it wrong...
The best part is, they've already built a plant to make these cells.
http://tinyurl.com/vnj4b
Origin Energy appears to be mostly a utility company, but they've constructed a pilot plant to commercialize this technology, and they're making panels now. (Just 10 watt panels, for the moment, while they figure out their process.)
It must be real challenging to handle all those little tiny bits of silicon. I wonder how they do it.
Thank you so much for caring for our planet! Keep going!
Yep great innovation.
Problem: It is stuck in AUSTRALIA.
Give it to the Chinese, the Japanese and/or the Californians and you might get to see it some time in our lifetime.