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Crystalline silicon cells are already inexpensive, non-toxic, and long-lived. So it makes sense that most researchers are looking for higher efficiency. Back wh
by philipkglass 3y ago
Crystalline silicon cells are already inexpensive, non-toxic, and long-lived. So it makes sense that most researchers are looking for higher efficiency. Back when purified silicon prices spiked around 2007-2008 there were a lot of efforts looking into more affordable (if less efficient) thin film based materials, but those fizzled out as wafered silicon got cheap again and kept widening the efficiency gap over e.g. amorphous silicon.
Since there's also a much bigger solar industry today than in 2007, you also see more practically-minded research coming out of corporate centers (Longi, Oxford PV, GCL System Integration, and others working on perovskite cells and perovskite-silicon tandems). Since they care about shipping real products, they are focused on solving lifetime and durability issues. Of course since this research can give a big commercial edge as single junction silicon reaches its efficiency limits, you'll also only see the really promising work published after it is patented.
- epolanski 3y agoSilicon is far from non-toxic to produce (requires insane amount of heat and chemicals to be purified) and dispose.
- jeffbee 3y agoAll these factors are reflected in the price and yet ordinary silicon PV panels are still dominating the market.
- pastage 3y agoEnvironmental, social and ecological issues are externals and are basically never included in the price.
- fsh 3y agoCould you list some of these chemicals? A quick google search only came up with pretty benign standard industrial chemicals. Disposal is a complete non-issue since the cells are inert and non-toxic (though recycling probably makes more sense than dumping them somewhere).
- V_Terranova_Jr 3y ago> So it makes sense that most researchers are looking for higher efficiency. It makes sense that researchers should be considering metrics other than efficiency as well for new materials or architectures, and there's no reason why this is a uniquely industrial pursuit. Grandparent's comment resonates - efficiency claims seem to be the only ones generating press releases.