Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have developed an inexpensive solar cell that can be painted or printed on flexible plastic sheets.
“The process is simple,” said lead researcher and author Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor and acting chair of NJIT’s Department of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences. “Someday homeowners will even be able to print sheets of these solar cells with inexpensive home-based inkjet printers. Consumers can then slap the finished product on a wall, roof or billboard to create their own power stations.”
Harvesting energy directly from abundant solar radiation using solar cells is increasingly emerging as a major component of future global energy strategy, said Mitra. Yet, when it comes to harnessing renewable energy, challenges remain. Expensive, large-scale infrastructures such as wind mills or dams are necessary to drive renewable energy sources, such as wind or hydroelectric power plants. Purified silicon, also used for making computer chips, is a core material for fabricating conventional solar cells. However, the processing of a material such as purified silicon is beyond the reach of most consumers.
“Developing organic solar cells from polymers, however, is a cheap and potentially simpler alternative,” said Mitra. “We foresee a great deal of interest in our work because solar cells can be inexpensively printed or simply painted on exterior building walls and/or roof tops. Imagine some day driving in your hybrid car with a solar panel painted on the roof, which is producing electricity to drive the engine. The opportunities are endless. ”
| This sounds very promising. An inexpensive, easy to produce solar cell that could be ink-jet printed would be terrific. |
| Found by Bubba Martin. |
Ink jet technology has yielded a plethora of new discoveries, techniques and opportunities. One that I recall is making new skin.
http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/19/1/4/1
RBG
Is that the technobabble title of the year or what?
I read the headline and got a headache.
Surgeon general’s warning: Reading this headline can cause dizziness, drooling, temporary blindness in one eye, and the sensation that one is dreaming or dyslexic. Individuals with less than a 175 IQ or possessing a basket weaving certificate from a community college should exercise extreme caution when reading.
JFStan – ROFLMFAO!!!!!
I hope this is real. If so, it’s really freakin’ impressive. I can’t wait to paint the new prius I haven’t bought yet!! Not just the top, I want to do the hood and all around the rear window as well. If it’s cheap enough, I’ll even do the sides so whichever side faces the sun generates even more power.
Does that mean that Epson will ban third party generic solar ink cartridges?
What’s wrong with you guys, the title says it all, clearly and succinctly.
Yeah, but can you use it to power a Turbo-Encabulator? I wonder if it wouldn’t interfere with the supplied inverse reactive current and subsequently hose up the unilateral phase detractors?
http://www.floobydust.com/turbo-encabulator/
#7 – My guess is that Epson would try to ban 3rd party sunlight.
iGlobalWarmer® – That was hilarious. The difference is, my headline is fact even though it sounds like double-talk. I could have come up with a lot of catchy headlines but I couldn’t resist the actual process name. (My phase detractors burned out a long time ago anyway.)
#10 – It’s actually a very cool sounding process, but with a title like that I couldn’t resist. 😉
#10, Hop, that has to be the most succinct, descriptive, and hilarious headline — the trifecta of headlines. At least your polarity discriminators are still functional. 🙂
#9, the new iGlobalWarmer, I recall that great article from back in the prehistoric days when the original GE datasheet was photocopied and handed around the office. Strange, it still makes just as much sense today. If it wasn’t for GE, we’d all be watching our monitors to the light of a candle.
Now, if my printer could just print me a flat screen TV…
Wait for it.
From my link above:
“Ink-jet technology may also have applications in the displays industry, where it could be used to create the transparent electrodes that criss-cross the front and rear surfaces of computer displays.”
#13, That was a cool article. Unfortunately, unless some new discoveries are made, the article states (for printing a display):
“However, this requires several manufacturing steps and unpleasant chemicals. It is also wasteful of indium, which costs about $1000 a kilogram and is becoming increasingly difficult to obtain.”
Guess I’ll just have to wait. But at least the solar cell tech is coming true!
I just have to wonder how much HP would charge for a solar cell printing ink cartridge. Probably far more than the cost of the oil necessary to generate the equivalent energy.
cough, cough,cough….sorry I was trying to get the headline down…awesome news though….
#15, I disagree. Let’s assume one cartridge could print just 100 pages, and about 1 sq. ft. per page. If each page has only a 10 watt output (average solar output per sq. ft. today is 15 watts per sq. ft.), that’s 1 kilowatt. Over an average 8 hours of sunlight per day (clouds, winter, etc.) that’s 8 kw hrs/day or 2,920 kw hours/year.
If it took an entire gallon of gasoline to make 1 cartridge and the 100 pages, that would be an energy expenditure of 31.41 kw hours. If the pages last only 5 years, that’s about a 460 to 1 advantage.
Looks to me like the math works out to support that this is a superb technological breakthrough.
14. Not that I would ever think to contradict a fellow bloggerinian, but allow me to direct your attention to the sentence previous to the one you quote:
“The substrates for most displays are currently sputter-coated with tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) and patterned using photolithography. However, this requires…”
RBG
Printing our own solar cells. This is unbelievably cool! Luckily my wife has a degree in chemistry and could explain the title to me.
#18, RBG, maybe a printed flat display could use different chemicals. I have absolutely no idea, the article didn’t enlighten, and neither chemistry nor display tech is my forte. Where is SmartAlix when you need him?
Bubba and hhop,
The Turbo-encabulator has been around since the 40’s, however you may not be aware that Rockwell Automation produced a competing product called the Retro-encabulator. They even did a promotional video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5125780462773187994
#21, iGW, And to think I worked at Collins Radio before and after they were absorbed by Rockwell. Dang, I didn’t even get the demo module! Holy jumpin’ hysteresis phase distortion inversion reducers, that was cool! 😆
The folks at slashdot slam this stuff way back to the land of vaporware.
I’m going out right now and get me some prefamulated amulite.
Wow! That Retro-encabulator would go nicely with my Interocitor!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interocitor
Order yours today at Ryberg Electronics Corp
http://www.shipbrook.com/jeff/interocitor/
Easily the best title for a thread/post ever rofl
hi im from guatemala, im interested in your product, it would help for aplication in hospitals here. i would like more info,
thanks