Stanford Finds Way for Solar Power to Compete with Fossil Fuels
One of the biggest problems with solar power to date has been the fact that it is cheaper for people to use fossil fuels than to take advantage of solar power energy. (Arguably, solar power can be cheaper in the long run, of course, but there are many people who are only concerned about the initial cost of energy when choosing their sources.) A new development in solar cell technology by researchers at Stanford could change that, placing solar power on par price-wise with oil and other fossil fuels.
A major issue with solar power in the past has been the fact that the energy of the sun could only be used to generate light or to generate heat - not to capture the power of both types of energy at the same time. In scientific terms, solar panels previously could either offer photovoltaic electricity generation or thermal electricity generation but not both. The newly researched process called photon enhanced thermionic emission (or PETE) is the first to capture both to generate both heat and light from the energy of the sun.
There’s a lengthy scientific explanation behind the importance of this new process but here are a few facts that keep it simple:
- Photovoltaic cells use the power of the sun to generate light.
- When photovoltaic cells start to get too hot, they decrease in efficiency.
- Photovoltaic cells use silicon, a substance that can only absorb energy from a small portion of the light spectrum.
- Ultimately, more than half of the solar energy hitting a typical solar cell is completely wasted because of these common problems.
The new solar panels by Stanford take this problem and turn it on its head. They take the excess heat that is generated from the cells and they effectively turn it in to excess energy. This new process could allow for 60% efficiency with new devices, which is considerably better than what solar panels offer today. In fact, with just 30% efficiency, the price of solar power would be comparable to that of oil. These solar panels would be designed to allow affordability of solar power for large scale distribution such as use on big farms.
Go Stanford!
Source: http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-08/stanford-researchers-new-solar-cells-convert-light-and-heat-electricity
Publish Date: 2010-08-09 10:38:03
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