Solar cells made using a pizza oven
By Jonathan Schlaffer
Everyone loves a good bargain especially Sams Club and Costco shoppers. Well, here’s a deal that just might be for the poorest 2 billion people on the planet. Extremely cheap solar cells made using a pizza oven, nail polish and an inkjet printer.
The idea is the brainchild of 23-year old Nicole Kuepper, a PhD student in the school of photovoltaic and renewable energy engineering at the University of NSW. That’s enough to make us all feel like underachievers.
It may not be as easy as just tossing the appropriate ingredients in the oven but the process doesn’t require a clean room or expensive facilities to produce.
According to Treehugger, the breakthrough earned her two Australian Museum Eureka Prizes, the most coveted scientific award in the country. She also won a people’s choice award for the technology.
It could take years before this technology becomes commercialized but is a step in the right direction. My only question is how efficient are they?
The most efficient solar cells convert about 43% of the Sun’s energy into electricity which isn’t bad but it’s not great either. I can’t believe that solar cells produced using things that could be found in a junk yard would be that efficient.
I don’t suppose that is the point, the cells just have to be “good enough.” Perhaps they’ll even be cheap enough to sell to the masses that actually shop at Sams Club and Costco.
If Kuepper was really that smart, she’d start selling this technology to companies, quit her PhD and let the money roll in. Or maybe that’s just what I would do.
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