With funding from the Department of Energy, Boeing-Spectrolab has managed to create a solar cell with 40.7% sunlight-to-energy conversion efficiency, said DoE assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy Alexander Karsner on Tuesday.
....
This breakthrough may lead to systems with an installation cost of only $3 per watt, producing electricity at a cost of 8-10 cents per kilowatt/hour, making solar electricity a more cost-competitive and integral part of our nation’s energy mix.
Source:
EE Times, Solar cell breakthrough claimed (12/06/2006 2:00 PM EST)
Department of Energy, New World Record Achieved in Solar Cell Technology December 5, 2006
Wacki -- Don't I recall another breakthrough in solar efficiency you reported on here a couple of months or so ago? So, being too lazy to research it right now, I want to ask, just how close are we now to solar (and wind) being totally competitive with conventional power in a way that will make them really competitive?
ReplyDeleteAnd, if you're lookin' for a way to kill some time, ;) I'm also wondering where we're at in terms of storage of power generated by solar and wind. That's a key, isn't it, since we can't rely on sun or wind to always be there when we need it?
Well an efficiency of 10% is enough to make solar power theoretically possible when it comes to simply looking at the amount of land we will need to use. We are almost at 50% so we have plenty of room to spare in this area.
ReplyDeleteThe main challenge now is making solar panels cheap to produce. Right now solar panels are still expensive because they require the use of expensive computer chip grade silicon. Thin films are our first attempt at reducing costs. There are plenty of other areas that need to be explored. One very promising area is nanotechnology. Some people are already starting to work on this:
Caltech and BP Team Up to Improve Electricity-Producing Solar Cells
But much more needs to be done. The goal is to get solar panels that are about 10x the cost (per square meter) of painting your house. Many believe it's possible but this is certainly no easy task.
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