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Why perovskites could be the key to cheap, efficient solar energy
- walrus01 5y agoI'm seeing pallet loads of STC 360W rated silicon based (mono or poly) PV modules at $0.42/watt to $0.51/watt now, how much cheaper are we talking here?
- krasin 5y agoNot to defeat your point, but $0.42/watt is considered a bit too expensive nowadays (unless, it includes shipping). The regular price for monocrystalline silicon solar panels is around $0.21/watt on Alibaba ([1]), not including shipping from China (which may vary, depends on the volume, destination and current rates). 1. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/550w-600w-latest-half-cell-430w_1600234514216.html https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/550w-600w-latest-half...
- walrus01 5y agoI was referring to single pallet prices (a very small quantity by modern standards) and from major reputable name brand manufacturers that have existed 10+ years... Yes there's lots of cheap panels available, but they're also scary if you've seen enough lamination and encapsulation failures.
- 2Gkashmiri 5y agocool. $0.37 is retail cost in india on the open market but there are absolutely no guarantees about the quality. fly by night is the game. there is a scheme of the government who give subsidized solar water pumps at a installed price of $0.12/watt" for the solar panels, water pump, fixtures, wiring, instalation, labour, spares. i plan to "request" farmer friends to buy me 10-15Kwh worth of panels which i plan to install at my home
- acjohnson55 5y ago> Sure, a triangle of pizza is pizza and a triangle, but it could be topped with pepperoni and cheese, or maybe sausage, but pies have also been garnished with coconut, peanuts, and squid. That certainly is...a sentence.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- flipbrad 5y agoGPT-3 having an off-day.
- londons_explore 5y agoIs there another article without fluff like that?
- photochemsyn 5y agoMonocrystalline silicon is the best option for long-lived electricity-generating purposes, but perovskites could have interesting industrial applications in particular solar hydrogen. In such systems you'd expect to have a production line replacing worn-out peroskites on a steady basis[1] [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2095495620306227 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S20954... "Perovskite – A wonder catalyst for solar hydrogen production Jun 2021"
- onecommentman 5y agoMy uncle warned me off polycrystalline silicon as being the perennial “technology of the future”. That comment was made well over 40 years ago.
- est 5y agoIt's the buzzword for paper publishing industry.
- pbalcer 5y agoThere's a company in Europe, Saule Technologies [1], that is claiming to be already capable of large scale commercialization of perovskites. It seems you can even buy/license it (B2B). The article seems to suggest that the biggest obstacle for market-readiness for this type of product is endurance. However, Saule on their FAQ website are claiming that their products have an initial lifetime of several years [2]. I also found this article from MIT Technology Review [3] where it's stated that "Oxford PV, Microquanta, and Saule all say they’ve solved the stability issue, at least well enough to sell their first products." So, who's right? Is the article overstating the stability problem or are these companies over-promising? [1] - https://sauletech.com/technology/ https://sauletech.com/technology/ [2] - https://sauletech.com/faq/ https://sauletech.com/faq/ [3] - https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/29/1027451/perovskite-solar-panels-hype-commercial-debut https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/29/1027451/perovski...
- modeless 5y ago> Is the article overstating the stability problem or are these companies over-promising? I think neither. "Several years" is still a huge problem. That's way too short.
- lrem 5y agoCould be good for some hobbyist deployments though.
- ajuc 5y agoGood enough for consumer electronics/wearables maybe.
- jaclaz 5y agoUnless the product is very, very cheap and can be easily replaced periodically. Just thinking aloud, but think about a (very, very) large (traditional) camera, you have this roll of film that you advance one frame at the time, and then expose to sunlight. Once every - say - two or three years, when it doesn't produce anymore enough electricity, you advance one frame and once every (say) ten or twenty years, you change the film roll.
- AtlasBarfed 5y agoPerovskite issues that still seem prevalent since they became a hype thing 3 years ago: - stability when exposed to oxygen (as in they don't last in the real world) - lead (disposal issues, which are important because they don't last) Have things improved recently? I'm going to assume that the "Colorado Sun" won't represent state of the art.
- bobjoeguy 5y agoPromising tin based perovskite are being developed. This addresses the disposal issue. Also chemical stability is being addressed in many ways, some of which more promising than others. Single crystal perovskites are extremely promising because they lack the defects present in polycrystalline and these defects are usually the origin of chemical instability. Also 2D perovskites are another way to address chemical instability and currently have been steadily increasing in overall efficiency. Sorry I don’t have sources for u, I’m too lazy to get them cause I typed this on my phones… but good reviews on each of these topics are one google away!
- bobjoeguy 5y agoLet’s not forget tandem cells that use both silicon and perovskite to achieve almost double the efficiency (~65%). It’s likely that the future of cheap energy could be the joint force of both of these amazing technologies.