6 replies to this topic

[Shortpoet-GTD]

Austrian and Japanese scientists are working on solar cells thinner than spider silk.

They are so flexible too that they can be wrapped around human hair.

Also in development are solar cells that can be painted or printed onto surfaces-

clothing, airplanes, laptops, windows; or suspended in liquids.

Recently, an airplane fitted with 12,000 solar cells flew a 4,000 mile journey.

http://www.altenergy...e__hl__airplane

Article here.

[Mustaxina]

This is great news, as it will open a whole new range of applications for solar power that we could only imagine until now. The only thing I can't see a use for is suspending solar cells in liquids - what would be the point? However, this wasn't at the top of my wish list for solar power. I'd love to see solar power compartmentalised. That you could buy small solar panels and just plug them together yourself with little or no need for technical expertise. This way, people who are currently unable to afford big solar panels would be able to buy small pieces, little by little, and then gradually buy new ones and expand their capacity with the money they save.

Of course, there probably are technical issues with making solar panels that are like pieces of a puzzle, but I'd love to see that happen. It would also be great to see how your electricity bill drops gradually as you buy and connect more and more pieces.

[QuatreHiead]

Mustaxina, on 07 August 2012 - 11:40 AM, said:

This is great news, as it will open a whole new range of applications for solar power that we could only imagine until now. The only thing I can't see a use for is suspending solar cells in liquids - what would be the point? However, this wasn't at the top of my wish list for solar power. I'd love to see solar power compartmentalised. That you could buy small solar panels and just plug them together yourself with little or no need for technical expertise. This way, people who are currently unable to afford big solar panels would be able to buy small pieces, little by little, and then gradually buy new ones and expand their capacity with the money they save.

Of course, there probably are technical issues with making solar panels that are like pieces of a puzzle, but I'd love to see that happen. It would also be great to see how your electricity bill drops gradually as you buy and connect more and more pieces.

That is a pretty cool idea about the puzzle pieces, however I don't know how much a point it would be to do the small bits at a time, I suppose sort of like you can get portable solar panels to power devices when you're out on long trips hiking etc... So that could be pretty neat to gradually work ones way up to tiling their roof in solar panels. Furthermore, hopefully it wouldn't be as expensive to replace if individual pieces are damaged, instead of having to replace an entire large set up. But I'm guessing that solar panels now have some associated warranties etc in case of extreme disasters.

However, as far as solar panels being suspended in liquids, I suppose the idea is they can be put out in the oceans, lakes or other nearby bodies of water. In this way we would no longer be limited to placing them on land or rooftops. That would be fascinating indeed, although the physics of the process would be altered considerably because the density and refractive index of the liquid would have to be factored in....

It is exciting however to see what sort of places solar panels can possibly go!

[Mustaxina]

QuatreHiead, on 07 August 2012 - 03:12 PM, said:

That is a pretty cool idea about the puzzle pieces, however I don't know how much a point it would be to do the small bits at a time, I suppose sort of like you can get portable solar panels to power devices when you're out on long trips hiking etc... So that could be pretty neat to gradually work ones way up to tiling their roof in solar panels. Furthermore, hopefully it wouldn't be as expensive to replace if individual pieces are damaged, instead of having to replace an entire large set up. But I'm guessing that solar panels now have some associated warranties etc in case of extreme disasters.

The idea would be to allow people who now can't afford to pay for an entire solar panel installation, and who don't want to take out a loan, to build their solar panels gradually. This way, instead of having to wait until you've saved enough money to purchase an entire installation, you can buy your pieces bit by bit and reap some benefits from the very beginning. It might also encourage more people to get into photovoltaics by promoting impulse buying: if you have to fork out $15,000, you won't buy solar panels or impulse. But if you can buy a 2-watt piece for $5, some people might buy a piece every week with the change from shopping food, clothes, etc.

[QuatreHiead]

Mustaxina, on 08 August 2012 - 02:34 AM, said:

The idea would be to allow people who now can't afford to pay for an entire solar panel installation, and who don't want to take out a loan, to build their solar panels gradually. This way, instead of having to wait until you've saved enough money to purchase an entire installation, you can buy your pieces bit by bit and reap some benefits from the very beginning. It might also encourage more people to get into photovoltaics by promoting impulse buying: if you have to fork out $15,000, you won't buy solar panels or impulse. But if you can buy a 2-watt piece for $5, some people might buy a piece every week with the change from shopping food, clothes, etc.

Thanks, but I understood what you meant about the monetary benefit from the first post and I agreed with that because it would be cool to gradually tile your roof or something... or at least that's the image in my mind.

However, to clarify, I was more concerned with the efficency on how much you energy output you would be able to take advantage of getting only a few small pieces at a time. My apologies flying through that one, I should have made that clearer. My guess would be depending on the size of the pieces there wouldn't be that much noticable offset. Although, perhaps over time someone could manage to see the difference in an electric bill if they monitor their useage carefully. But, I do suppose that would be another driving factor to push consumers towards saving up to purchase more pieces to increase their energy savings more rapidly over time.

The other interesting idea I could see behind it is if they were ideally that cheap that one could save up and every week or so put towards building up to a larger panel some fascinating art and design could come into the mix as well I bet. Especially if you have a good peice of land to work with and place the pieces together in any fashion. It's also the first thought that occurred to me when the idea of painted on solar photovoltaics came up.

[Shortpoet-GTD]

We've gotten off track here talking about "pieces."
What the article was talking about was using these solar threads as a substance to "paint" onto items;
windows, rooftops and incorporating these threads into clothing or other fabrics.

[Mustaxina]

QuatreHiead, on 08 August 2012 - 04:30 PM, said:

However, to clarify, I was more concerned with the efficency on how much you energy output you would be able to take advantage of getting only a few small pieces at a time. My apologies flying through that one, I should have made that clearer. My guess would be depending on the size of the pieces there wouldn't be that much noticable offset. Although, perhaps over time someone could manage to see the difference in an electric bill if they monitor their useage carefully. But, I do suppose that would be another driving factor to push consumers towards saving up to purchase more pieces to increase their energy savings more rapidly over time.

I was assuming a scenario in which you can buy a 2.5-watt piece for $5, which is more or less the price at which you can buy regular solar panels now. Even if you only bought one such piece every week, in just a month and a half you would be able to offset the energy consumption of a laptop being used for surfing the Internet or writing a Word document. After a while, you would be able to offset all the lightbulbs in your house. And so on. The most powerful driver is that $5 is something you might get as change when you buy groceries, and it has been proven that people part more easily with their change than with the rest of their money.