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Promising new technologies, including more efficient photovoltaic cells that can harvest energy across the light spectrum, stick on solar cells and spray on solar cells have the potential to dramatically increase solar power generation in the next two decades. But major hurdles remain.
Today, despite recent progress, solar power accounts for about one percent of the world’s energy mix.
The answer, according to scientists and engineers, lies in a new generation of super-efficient, low-cost sunlight harvesters that take up where the recent flood of cheap silicon panels leaves off. New designs and novel solar materials have recently been setting new efficiency records seemingly every week. Although research and development of solar power still falls far short of where scientists and engineers say it needs to be, innovators are making steady progress in creating a new generation of materials that can harvest the sun’s energy far more efficiently than traditional silicon photovoltaic cells.
Glue on Solar Panels
Nextbigfuture looked at the detailed NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab) report and statistics of solar photovoltaic panel soft costs and how much the super-simple installation can reduce the futurecosts. Installation and permit-related expenses currently account for more than half of the overall cost of a new solar power setup. “By simplifying the system so that it’s like installing an appliance, we envision that the soft cost will be virtually eliminated,” says Christian Hoepfner, director of the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, which developed the system. Doing so would lower the cost of a typical residential solar installation from $22,000 to as little as $7,500, he says.
Read more »
Reposted via Next Big Future
Promising new technologies, including more efficient photovoltaic cells that can harvest energy across the light spectrum, stick on solar cells and spray on solar cells have the potential to dramatically increase solar power generation in the next two decades. But major hurdles remain.
Today, despite recent progress, solar power accounts for about one percent of the world’s energy mix.
The answer, according to scientists and engineers, lies in a new generation of super-efficient, low-cost sunlight harvesters that take up where the recent flood of cheap silicon panels leaves off. New designs and novel solar materials have recently been setting new efficiency records seemingly every week. Although research and development of solar power still falls far short of where scientists and engineers say it needs to be, innovators are making steady progress in creating a new generation of materials that can harvest the sun’s energy far more efficiently than traditional silicon photovoltaic cells.
Glue on Solar Panels
Nextbigfuture looked at the detailed NREL (National Renewable Energy Lab) report and statistics of solar photovoltaic panel soft costs and how much the super-simple installation can reduce the futurecosts. Installation and permit-related expenses currently account for more than half of the overall cost of a new solar power setup. “By simplifying the system so that it’s like installing an appliance, we envision that the soft cost will be virtually eliminated,” says Christian Hoepfner, director of the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems, which developed the system. Doing so would lower the cost of a typical residential solar installation from $22,000 to as little as $7,500, he says.
Read more »
Reposted via Next Big Future
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