New Powerful Miniature Solar Cells:
from
Sharp Corp
on
June 3, 2004
Website:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/040528/1904/b052823ajpg
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Powerful Miniature Solar Cells to Come!
For every ham who is interested in solar power but does not like their size/weight, your concerns may soon be over...
The Sharp Corp has developed a new paper-thin solar cell. Applying the single-crystal compound solar cell technology used for satellites, Sharp says it has doubled the efficiency compared to household cells. Two cells, the size of business cards, weighing 1 gram, can generate 2.6 watts electricity, enough to light up a bicycle light. Sharp aims at mass production of the new solar cell by the end of 2004.
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New Powerful Miniature Solar Cells:
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by K0RGR on June 3, 2004
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We must hope this is true and there are no 'gotchas'. I remember back in the late 70's, our energy salvation was to come from something called gallium-arsenide solar cells. These cells were at least 10 times as efficient as silicon solar cells, and a one-foot square patch of them could allegedly generate enough energy to power a car. They were used in space applications.
While gallium arsenide became popular for use in low noise amplifier transistors, it was not practical to produce in sufficient quantity to make GaAs solar cells affordable for the masses.
These new cells probably won't be used to power cars, but they should make solar energy much more attractive.
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RE: New Powerful Miniature Solar Cells:
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by AD7DB on June 3, 2004
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"Doubled the efficiency" eh? Existing solar cells are around 10-12% efficient. If Sharp really did bring this up to 20% efficiency then that WOULD be something. But, what's the cost of these new cells? Won't be worth the trouble if the price is too high, unless you really need the most power generated per square meter - in other words if size is the criterion.
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have been learning about this stuff lately
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by KZ1X on June 3, 2004
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Only 2 problems:
#1: the panel must be maintained at right angles to the impinging solar plane to get full efficiency, and
#2: cost per square centimeter is more than 3x that of existing technologies.
Won't be useful to us hams, who need cheap stuff. But will be VERY useful to others!
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RE: have been learning about this stuff lately
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by K3AN on June 4, 2004
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If it works, then mass production will bring the cost way down. Think about what NASA paid for the first batch of Velcro, and what it costs now.
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RE: New Powerful Miniature Solar Cells:
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by K5DVW on June 4, 2004
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"a one-foot square patch of them could allegedly generate enough energy to power a car"
hahahaha no way they said that? Really? That's crazy!
Solar radiation is about 1000W/m^2 on a bright day.
A square foot is about 0.1 m^2, so that's 100W delivered with 100% efficiency.
Solar cells, even the best ones, are about 15% efficient, so now you're down to 15W.
A car with a 100 hp engine is producing 74,000 W of power, roughly.
Doing the math... well it just doesnt add up!
I guess you can tell the public anything and they'll buy it?
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New Powerful Miniature Solar Cells:
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by N8BOA on June 5, 2004
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I read a artical (S.A.) that if we spent 1/3 of our defence dollars for 5 years building solar cells we would have enough to cover every house in the U.S. and electric power would be at $0.015 per KW this would give us the capacity to make hydogen for are cars Think of all the jobs just to install and matain and think of the security not having to buy Bush OIL
N8BOA
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New Powerful Miniature Solar Cells:
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by W0SAS on June 7, 2004
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A solar-powered bicycle light... sounds like just the sort of thing I need.
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RE: New Powerful Miniature Solar Cells:
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by VK3KCG on June 9, 2004
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The University of New South Wales in Australia have developed Solar cells that were pushing 24% efficiency 2 years ago, does this mean Sharp have cells that are over 40% efficient????
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RE: have been learning about this stuff lately
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by AE6IP on June 9, 2004
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> If it works, then mass production will bring the
> cost way down. Think about what NASA paid for the
> first batch of Velcro, and what it costs now.
NASA was created approximately 20 years *after* Velcro was commercially introduced.
(They don't get credit for transistors, integrated circuits, Teflon, Tang, or most of the other things people associate with the space program, either.)
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