Delaware to lead $53 million dollar program to develope very high efficiency solar cell!!

A broad consortium led by the University of Delaware could receive nearly $53 million in funding--with the bulk of the money coming from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)--to more than double the efficiency of terrestrial solar cells within the next 50 months.

The DARPA program calls upon the consortium to develop and produce 1,000 Very High Efficiency Solar Cell (VHESC) prototypes that are affordable and that operate at efficiencies of at least 50 percent.

Finally they see the potential of this stuff!
www.earthtoys.com...

www.eet.com...

GO BLUE HENS!!!!!!!!!

Sweet

The sun beats down on earth with about 1000 watts per square meter-immense amounts of energy. We have what another 4 billion year supply of it too.

We have all that desert land in the US too which is just perfect for solar cell fields.

Forget desert how much barren roofspace is there in the city? Add this to better insulation and more efficient appliances .... well you can get the picture

It's good to see that Ruth Ann Minner has become a big advocate of alternative energy. It reminds me of the publicity moment captured and printed on the newspaper of RAM opening the first soy bio-diesel fill up station at a boat launch.

Hey, if it takes DARPA to do it, so be it! It's always been surprising independant scientists haven't just gone this route, but funding always rears it's ugly head.

*looks forward to using some good old fashioned sunlight*

Maybe once this stuff actually starts to work people will see it works.

At what efficiency percentage would solar electricity become cheap enough to compete with coal?

Solar in the cities would work great , not to mention other places like Texas, and anywhere else where we have abundant sky!

Cities already have a problem. They create lots of heat.

Solar cells could not only create electricity , but also reflect unused heat back into space.

The light that hits the panels that does not create electricity is either heating the Solar Panel or reflected back into space, which is much less of a problem than the Ground heat generated by Cites.

In other words by creating electricity in the cities you also help to resolve a heat generation problem with cities because with Solar Panels what is not turned into Electricity is reflected back into space.

Think about this, the cooler the temperature in you city the less amount of electricity will be used to cool it.

The more Solar power you generate from the Sun for free , the cooler your City will become.

The Cooler the temperature in your City the less amount of Electricity is needed to Cool your City.

You can fight Global Warming , by not contributing to it as much, Generate more Power , and Use less Energy all at the same time.

What is there not to Love ?


And think about if you were actually strategically placing Solar Cells to collect the most power and reflect the most amount of heat you would get even more bang for your buck.

Don't think in terms of just how much power a Solar Cell can produce , but also think of a Solar Cell as being a Passive Radiant Barrier. A passive Radiant Barrier can save tons of Energy that would otherwise be undesirably produced.

In Laymans terms you make shade , and generate electricity at the same time.

Or you get more out of the system than you put into the system.

[edit on 8-11-2005 by lost_shaman]

Originally posted by TJ11240
At what efficiency percentage would solar electricity become cheap enough to compete with coal?

I think the cost of making the cells is a more important factor to compete with things like coal. The classic cells you need expensive silicon. Over a typical 20-year life span of a solar cell, a single produced watt cost $4.0 burning coal cost about $1 dollar a watt.

A 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.

They are hoping to do that just by making cheaper cells rather then making ones that convert more of the sunslight to energy. If solar watts would cost that little it would spark a solar revolution in the world.

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