Yet another promise of cheap solar power

[charrison]

linkage

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- A major European chip maker said this week it had discovered new ways to produce solar cells which will generate electricity twenty times cheaper than today's solar panels.

STMicroelectronics, Europe's largest semiconductor maker, said that, by the end of next year, it expected to have made the first stable prototypes of the new cells, which could then be put into production.

Most of today's solar cells, which convert sunlight into electricity, are produced with expensive silicon, the same material used in most semiconductors.

The French-Italian company expects cheaper organic materials such as plastics to bring down the price of producing energy. Over a typical 20-year life span of a solar cell, a single produced watt should cost as little as $0.20, compared with the current $4.

The new solar cells would even be able to compete with electricity generated by burning fossil fuels such as oil and gas, which costs about $0.40 per watt, said Salvo Coffa, who heads ST's research group that is developing the technology

Maybe this one is true.

 

[Zebo]

Excellent info char... The current photovolatic cells (panels) to power a "normal" american home plus x-former, and batteries run about 35K assuming you're totally self-suffeint in the SW which is insane!!! So this would mean a considerable reduction aparenty. One concern I think is sqft. Using the example above I think it's around 35 4x8 panels of silicon based photovoltaic cells which uses considerable land mass on your property. They indicate these news cells, while being cheaper, are half as effecient meaning 2x the solar panels meaning more sqft is needed on an already "tight" space for most folks... Of course you also have the aestetic polution which is prohibitive.


Definitly interesting...need to do more reading..

 

[charrison]

Originally posted by: Zebo
Excellent info char... The current photovolatic cells (panels) to power a "normal" american home plus x-former, and batteries run about 35K assuming you're totally self-suffeint in the SW which is insane!!! So this would mean a considerable reduction aparenty. One concern I think is sqft. Using the example above I think it's around 35 4x8 panels of silicon based photovoltaic cells which uses considerable land mass on your property. They indicate these news cells, while being cheaper, are half as effecient meaning 2x the solar panels meaning more sqft is needed on an already "tight" space for most folks... Of course you also have the aestetic polution which is prohibitive.


Definitly interesting...need to do more reading..

Well if they are cheap enough to remove 1kw load off the grid for every household, that would still be significant savings from power plants.


I dont see the bulk of the population getting completely off the grid for a long time.

 

[sandorski]

 

[zephyrprime]

Just so people know, STM is hardly the only company/organization to be working with plastic solar panels. Plastic solar panels are a very natural outgrowth of polymer semiconductors. Polymer semis hold tremendous potential for making semiconducting products of all sorts but cheaper.

Until now, plastic solar panels that have been made sufferred from really low energy conversion efficiency and low lifetime.

If their claim of 10% efficiency holds up, it would revolutionize power in the US.

 

[Czar]

hurrey for science