I believe that the overall efficiency of solar cells of the traditional variety is lower then that. The key thing is that each square foot of solar panel costs X to manufacture. While the cost of the coloured glass is not accounted for, this process means that you need dramatically less of the expensive solar panels, requiring only simple glass coloured in that fashion. While the amount of energy extracted per square foot of the energy collecting array is likely only increased slightly, you require a mere fraction of the cost of materials in order to extract it. This means that the cost per kilowatt is dramatically lower, to the point of being competitive with fossil fuels.
The really brilliant thing about this is as solar cell technology inevitably improves (as it has been since the 70s), this just serves to boost that improvement.
Yeah, thats the problem with traditional solar technology. Granted, 10-20% of X free energy is still free energy. It's just not free in terms of materials to generate it.
THAT is fabulous, and I'm going to send that to my dad right now... (The house he recently built is entirely off the grid, all solar and wind. THIS will be of great interest to him.)
I work for a semiconductor market analysis company.
Let me say this:
HOLY FUCK YEAH. That's SO BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS that it makes me want to BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF MYSELF for NOT THINKING OF IT.
"Duhr, the real problehm is taht silicon onlee can be tuned to be efficient for one wavelength and isn't transparent to teh Udders. DUH. DUH. NO WAY AROUND DAT"
AAAAAGH SO GODDAMNED OBVIOUS IN RETROSPECT
---
So, it doesn't /actually/ make solar cells more efficient. It makes the real estate more efficient, by light-piping the appropriate wavelength to the appropriately tuned solar cell.
EVERY FIFTH GRADER WITH A NEON PERSPEX CLIPBOARD KNOWS THIS EFFECT. I am a fucking TARD! AAAA
The best thing? That the glass can be used instead of windows on office buildings, because it's shunting the light to cells on the edges. It still lets through around 10% of the light - much like the smoked glass used currently.
Whole buildings generating power. The optimistic futurist at this point is considering the possibilty of replacing windows almost entirely with these things. He (ie, me, though I'm often more pessimistic), is not an electro- or -optical physicist, so may be wrong.
Depends on how well they can miniaturize. It would have to be thicker then the normal windows I would think. Then again, if there are layers of air in there it might improve the insulation value. While 10% of light is kinda too little for human comfort levels on many windows, I could see it as being very useful on a whole.
The thing I love is that solar energy traditionally costs about 10x that of fossil fuels. http://www.solarbuzz.com/DistributedGeneration.htm That kind of increase in efficiency would make solar cost less then fossil fuels. It would be cheaper to make a solar plant then a coal plant.
But like you say above, it's free energy that otherwise isn't being used. The more sunlight we can convert to usable energy, the better (generall speaking). I'm not advocating a Dyson sphere, but still...
Also, I've read some interesting things about using firbe-optics to "pipe" sunlight into buildings. If it becomes feasable one could replace a lot of lighting as well. Figure out how to store extra light on very sunny days (okay, probably via the previously mentioned windows), and there's a whole component of a building's energy requirements dealth with, without requiring outside power.
Now we need to start figuring out replacements for plastics and metals, and we'll be further on our way to a sustainable civilization. Though I suppose eventually the sun will burn out - but by then maybe we'll have come up with something.
I don't think that it will be used on windows intended for proper vision. Replacing smoked glass, yes. It would also work as plating over building, possibly with the roof covered with gardens/vegetation. Let me just tell you that the positive effects of having plants on the tops of buildings is staggering. You know how much the bird communities would benefit? It would even cut down on the thermal inversion which traps smog in cities and help filter it out. It would mean that entire buildings could compost by tossing it in a bin and having the janitors throw it in a pile on the roof. Thats it.
Fibre-opics piping light is a good idea as well. I doubt that sunlight storage would be necessary, just convert it into electricity and use good old-fashioned high efficiency white LED or flurescent lights.
Thing is that we can probably be fine with our plastics and metals. With a near infinite amount of free electricity, limited only by area, we could recycle freely and use non-petroleum storage mediums for transportation such as hydrogen/oxygen mixes. We then have enough petrochemicals to be turned into plastics (or we use the biodegradable starch-based plastics with the former ethanol producing plants) that it will last for centuries.
I always figured that it was going to be another couple of decades before we hit the point where solar power was actually competitive with coal and other fossil fuels. Seeing this now just literally blows my fucking mind. Thanks for the rewording.
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(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 10:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 10:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 10:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 10:31 pm (UTC)That is the coolness.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-12 12:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 11:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 11:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 10:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 10:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 11:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 11:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 10:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 10:29 pm (UTC)Let me say this:
HOLY FUCK YEAH. That's SO BLINDINGLY OBVIOUS that it makes me want to BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF MYSELF for NOT THINKING OF IT.
"Duhr, the real problehm is taht silicon onlee can be tuned to be efficient for one wavelength and isn't transparent to teh Udders. DUH. DUH. NO WAY AROUND DAT"
AAAAAGH SO GODDAMNED OBVIOUS IN RETROSPECT
---
So, it doesn't /actually/ make solar cells more efficient. It makes the real estate more efficient, by light-piping the appropriate wavelength to the appropriately tuned solar cell.
EVERY FIFTH GRADER WITH A NEON PERSPEX CLIPBOARD KNOWS THIS EFFECT. I am a fucking TARD! AAAA
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-11 11:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-12 02:57 am (UTC)Whole buildings generating power. The optimistic futurist at this point is considering the possibilty of replacing windows almost entirely with these things. He (ie, me, though I'm often more pessimistic), is not an electro- or -optical physicist, so may be wrong.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-12 03:50 am (UTC)The thing I love is that solar energy traditionally costs about 10x that of fossil fuels. http://www.solarbuzz.com/DistributedGeneration.htm
That kind of increase in efficiency would make solar cost less then fossil fuels. It would be cheaper to make a solar plant then a coal plant.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-12 04:35 am (UTC)Also, I've read some interesting things about using firbe-optics to "pipe" sunlight into buildings. If it becomes feasable one could replace a lot of lighting as well. Figure out how to store extra light on very sunny days (okay, probably via the previously mentioned windows), and there's a whole component of a building's energy requirements dealth with, without requiring outside power.
Now we need to start figuring out replacements for plastics and metals, and we'll be further on our way to a sustainable civilization. Though I suppose eventually the sun will burn out - but by then maybe we'll have come up with something.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-12 05:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-12 02:24 pm (UTC)Fibre-opics piping light is a good idea as well. I doubt that sunlight storage would be necessary, just convert it into electricity and use good old-fashioned high efficiency white LED or flurescent lights.
Thing is that we can probably be fine with our plastics and metals. With a near infinite amount of free electricity, limited only by area, we could recycle freely and use non-petroleum storage mediums for transportation such as hydrogen/oxygen mixes. We then have enough petrochemicals to be turned into plastics (or we use the biodegradable starch-based plastics with the former ethanol producing plants) that it will last for centuries.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-12 11:23 am (UTC)That gave me brain a woody.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-12 05:08 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-12 05:14 am (UTC)