Pliable Solar Cells on a Roll

klevin writes "New Scientist is running a story on someone else who's developed thin, flexible, photovoltaic cells: 'The thin and bendy solar panels can be stuck to fabrics, sheets or backpacks and promise a go-anywhere electricity supply.' Whatever happened to those sheets of solar cells that some university here in the US developed several years back? As I remember, the concept was that they could be draped across roof-tops and whatnot. Never heard anything after that." We had post about solar building clothing last year.

WARNING

[Dash'n'SlashDot]

God, solar panelling on the clothes. try to imagine the warning labels they would put on thee things: WARNING! DO NOT USE WHILE BATHING OR WHILE HAVING SEX. ... Don't laugh. You heard it here first. Expect it on your self-heating winter coats next year.

Not really

[Nomihn0]

If I understand solar sails correctly, this is not how they work. Instead, they utilize the combined force of billions of subatomic particles radiated by stars hitting a parachute shaped foil to tow a capsule. This is why they are made to be exceptionally lightweight and large in their surface area.

Re:Cheap solar panels

[Squalish]

Okay, was reading the wrong data, that was peak price, the lowest prices one can find are around E2.66 per watt for crystalline + E3.15 for thin film.

Still, 1 euro per watt would make a HUGE difference in the viability of solar.

Electricity is only a small part of the game

[dr.Flake]

What amazes me is that all this investment time and "energy" is spent on cells that produce electricity.

Whereas the collection of Heat is as simple as it can get, but rarely used.
Though most mediteranian countries use solar heat for heating their domestic water, but that is about it.

What i have in mind is the use of solar heat, collected during summer, to warm domestic homes during winter. (Thats where real amounts of energy (read CO2) are needed !)
Water is an exellent storage container for heat and is dirt cheap.

The only problem is where to store all the warm water. Probably the easiest solution would be to pump up ground water, heat it, and pump it back. (The ground is actually an exellent therman insulator!)
Use the 1kW of solar energy from a couple of M2 of these cells to make water run through 100 m2 of cheap solar heat collectors.

Now we are SAVING evergy.

Re:Price per watt is what matters

[humbads]

Yes, you will get rich. If a $1000 investment yields $0.50 per day worth of electricity on average, then that results in $182.50 per year in revenue. Assuming no maintenance, land, installation, or other overhead costs, you are earning 18.25% yearly on your investment. It would be like printing money!

Re:Hmmm.

[The_Dougster]

Solar sail? Try relativity rocket.

Just use the solar cells to power up a linear accelerator and shoot nuclei out the back at near the speed of light. If you can get 0.999c from a nucleus you get a tremendous thrust for one little atom. Remember, F mA when you approach the speed of light. Relativity rockets (super ion engines) are probably the best means of propulsion where electric power is plentiful but mass is dear. I'm sorry, but that tiny momentum of a photon is so small it is pathetic. Granted you get 2x boost for reflection vs 1x boost for adsorbtion, but 2 x 0 still equals 0. The only way to practically get around in space is to shoot nuclei out the back of a rocket engine at the speed of light.

Re:Electricity is only a small part of the game

[TheLoneCabbage]

Most solar researchers in this veign are using Sodium Cloride (table salt). It has a much higher specific heat than water. Tends to be less explosive when heated to 600c (you really want to build your house on top of an aging steam boiler with the equivalent energy of dynamite?), and is even cheaper than water and dirt (water aint cheap where I come from)! When molten it's conduction of heat is so efficient you don't even need pumps, it's own confection currents do the work for you.

Now you just need a near perfect insulator and your all set. (say an underground tank insulated with airogel)

The real trick isn't in just heating homes though. It's also running things like ovens and stoves. For that your going to need a liquid that stays a liquid between -10c and 250c, without dangerous pressure build up, freezing, corroding or screwing up your pumps. (and it can't pollute the environment when it leaks)

Once you can safely transport high temperatures 2-3 times boiling point, you can do some pretty amazing things. Like running your A/C from the heat well. (two sterling engines hooked up to eachoter in reverse) Water pumps, air tools, and electrical generators (40-50% efficient in sealed systems like sterlings, but much higher for open ended boilers. The trick as you put it is to avoid converting the energy from one form to another untill it's absolutly necesary.