New Solar Cells First To Produce Electricity From Heat and Light - Stanford

Well this seems like a significant evolution in solar tech. Stanford scientist have figured a way to utilize both light and heat for solar power. The first time photovoltaic and thermal energy generated is combined.'The process is called PETE, photon enhanced thermionic emissions. The process incorporates cesium to more than double the current efficiency levels of solar panels. This technology can be added to existing tech too to make it better.

The efficiency of this new idea brings the cost to a point where it becomes a viable competitor with oil. The new technique uses readily available materials and is cheap to boot up with older systems.
The researchers coat a piece of semi-conducting material with cesium which allows the cells to use light and heat generated. They used gallium nitride because of it's ability to withstand high temps , but will be using gallium arsenide in the future, which is commonly used in household electronics.

When used, the PETE devices could reach 60% efficiency. 30% alone would bring the cost on par with oil prices.
I think this is very cool.....

gallium arsenide -en.wikipedia.org... sounds like strong stuff and Calif has listed it as a carcinogen. Further testing will be done to determine levels of toxicity.





www.popsci.com...

Peace

Originally posted by speculativeoptimist
Well this seems like a significant evolution in solar tech. Stanford scientist have figured a way to utilize both light and heat for solar power. The first time photovoltaic and thermal energy generated is combined.'The process is called PETE, photon enhanced thermionic emissions. The process incorporates cesium to more than double the current efficiency levels of solar panels. This technology can be added to existing tech too to make it better.

The efficiency of this new idea brings the cost to a point where it becomes a viable competitor with oil[b/]. The new technique uses readily available materials and is cheap to boot up with older systems.
The researchers coat a piece of semi-conducting material with cesium which allows the cells to use light and heat generated. They used gallium nitride because of it's ability to withstand high temps , but will be using gallium arsenide in the future, which is commonly used in household electronics.

When used, the PETE devices could reach 60% efficiency. 30% alone would bring the cost on par with oil prices.
I think this is very cool.....

gallium arsenide -en.wikipedia.org... sounds like strong stuff and Calif has listed it as a carcinogen. Further testing will be done to determine levels of toxicity.

www.popsci.com...

Peace

I highlighted a part, sorry...
But thats a big problem with NEW TECH..
It will probly be 10times the price of oil just to make sure
the oilcartels keep getting thier money...

For the domestic/offgrid setup there's a far easier and cheaper way to improve the efficiency of a PV panel and make use of the thermal energy by adding a heat-collector unit behind the cells on a panel.

Simply put, you run a coolant through a radiator to absorb the heat that builds up in a panel and dumps it into a thermal store, such as a water cylinder, which then acts as a pre-heat for your domestic C/H boiler.

Still, this could be an elegant solution for the large concentrated-PV systems using triple-junction cell technology that generate power on the Megawatt scale

reply to post by Miccey


Hey Miccey, thanks for the reply! I here ya too, but it sounds like it is becoming competitive with oil prices which is a good thing and should make this a reality. Of course it has to be profitable, and I hope we see this sooner than later.
spec

reply to post by citizen smith

Hello citizen smith! I like your angle on this and this is why I dig ats so much, people see ideas and critique or build upon them. You seem to be pretty sharp about this stuff and I appreciate your input.
Recently there have ben a couple of other breakthroughs in energy development that sound promising too.
Solar Panel Highways
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Gas From Air and Plant Enzymes
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Poo Powered Car
www.abovetopsecret.com...

spec

[edit on 10-8-2010 by speculativeoptimist]