Self-Healing Solar Cells Could Have Indefinite Lifespan By Rachel Ehrenberg, Science News September 7, 2010 "A new technique may one day lead to solar cells that bring themselves together like a molecular flash mob and repair damage they sustain during the rough business of turning light into electricity. The research lays the groundwork for cheap, self-repairing solar cells with an indefinite lifetime, a team reports September 5 in Nature Chemistry. Its a manmade version of what nature does, says nanocomposite expert Jaime Grunlan of Texas A&M University in College Station. This really looks like ground-breaking seminal work; Ive never seen anything remotely like it. The suns rays can be brutal, even for a leaf thats harvesting them. When photosynthesis is going full blast, a leaf is constantly building new photosynthetic reaction centers to replace those damaged by harsh oxygen species and other destructive molecules generated by intense ultraviolet light. So rather than trying to make solar cells that are extremely durable, the team decided to take a literal leaf from natures book and go the route of self-repair, says chemical engineer Michael Strano of MIT, who led the project. He and Stephen Sligar and Colin Wraight of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, along with other colleagues, designed a system where damaged parts could be easily replaced. The researchers began with light-harvesting reaction centers from a purple bacterium. Then they added some proteins and lipids for structure, and carbon nanotubes to conduct the resulting electricity. These ingredients were added to a water-filled dialysis bag - the kind used to filter the blood of someone whose kidneys dont work - which has a membrane that only small molecules can pass through. The soupy solution also contained sodium cholate, a surfactant to keep all the ingredients from sticking together. When the team filtered the surfactant out of the mix, the ingredients self-assembled into a unit, capturing light and generating an electric current. The spontaneous assembly occurs thanks to the chemical properties of the ingredients and their tendency to combine in the most energetically comfortable positions. The scaffolding protein wraps around the lipid, forming a little disc with the photosynthetic reaction center perched on top. These discs line up along the carbon nanotube, which has pores that electrons from the reaction center can pass through. Adding the sodium cholate back into the mix disassembles the complexes. But filtering it out again brings them right back together. The idea that it happens reversibly and at will is quite amazing, says Strano. It approaches what happens in biology - forming a huge amount of order with the flip of a switch. Its kind of like taking puzzle pieces and throwing them up in the air and them coming down assembled. The complexes eventually lose power, but they are easily revived, says Strano. The research team disassembled the units and replenished the photosynthetic reaction centers. Four such replacements over the course of a week kept keeping the complexes humming along. This is very nice work - the procedure theyve got, the control they have over the system, says biochemist Mike Jones of the University of Bristol in England. Its simple, its very nice. The units cant compete with silicon-based solar cells in use today. But silicon-based solar cells reached their current level of efficiency only after decades of research and development, says Jones. Similar investment in this new technology could yield a system thats highly efficient, can self-repair and works well under low light conditions, he says. Whats more, the main ingredients for these solar cells might one day be easily extracted from plant material, says Strano, perhaps even from garbage biomass. We could turn waste into an organized product, he says." http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/self-repairing-solar-cells/ ...... This kind of self-repairing solar cells on rooftops, on outside walls, on car tops, even on dog houses could conceivably produce the energy needed to heat and cool our homes, neighborhoods, and provide the electricity for our industries. The best thing about this particular form of self-repairing solar cell is its ability to work even under low light conditions, such as cloudy days for an indefinite time. It makes it highly proficient in everyday use, while the other forms require full sun, the cell constantly replenishes itself which will make it cost-efficient because it has the potential to last a lifetime.
Great now find an efficient cheep energy storage solution and solar may become viable. The problem with solar, and wind for that matter, isn't the technology its the fuel source. You could invent solar cells that (*)(*)(*)(*) gold it won't solve any of the problems with solar. The problem was nothing to do with cell technology and everything to do with energy storage. And that has been the holy grail of energy research for the last century so it isn't for lack of trying.
....... What do coal-fired, and nuclear fueled electrical plants do to store their electricity? It is in constant use to serve the public and our industries. When it goes down our electricitiy is gone. Solar, wind, and/or hydro-electric renewable energy will surpass anything that dirty coal or hazardous nuclear fusion can produce. And after the initial installation, long-life cells will be cheaper, cleaner, with no damage to our environment, health, ecosystem, and wildlife. As you watch/read about our violent weather patterns, earthquakes, the hole in our ozone layer from pollution, severe rain storms, tsunamis, and excessive heat and cold...what do you think our planet is trying to tell us?
They don’t need it. They can supply constant power. Their fuel source is not intermittent. No its still intermittent. There is no way around that. And without some kind of cheap storage technology solar and wind will never be viable. You can make all the advancements you want in solar cells themselves. Without some kind of advancement in power storage they will never be viable. The planet isn't sentient.
Solar causin' cancer?... Hundreds Demonstrate Against China Solar Panel Factory September 18, 2011 - China's state news agency says protesters have been camped out in front of a solar panel factory in eastern China more than three days, accusing it of spreading cancer-causing pollution.
Both fusion and fission are hazardous if unshielded. Neither fusion nor fission is hazardous if properly shielded.
Protests shut down solar plant in China... China solar panel plant shuts down Tue, Sep 20, 2011 - China has ordered the closure of a solar panel factory in the east of the country after hundreds of local residents staged violent protests over pollution, authorities said yesterday.
They can run 24 hrs a day, and aren't subject to the daily cycle of weather. There is no need for energy storage. Wind/solar need energy storage because they are variable. You mean fission, not fusion. And, no, currently the alternatives aren't good enough--solar power can't power a house at night without energy storage. Well, the ozone hole is shrinking and is almost nonexistent. So for that the planet is saying thank you. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/05/100505-science-environment-ozone-hole-25-years/ All of those have occurred throughout history.
Efficient energy storage actually would greatly benefit traditional power plants, but don't expect to see it any time soon.
Which is about as important to nuclear plants as the danger of sticking your hands in a boiler is important to coal fired ones.
You have got to watch this six minute video hilarious and convincing! http://www.solarroadways.com/intro.shtml https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=705940132793896
When solar can produce electricity at night, when windmills can produce electricity when there is no wind, and when hydro-electric can produce electricity without turning a running river into a lake, you will have a point. Hydro is pretty constant, which is why we have used it so long. Solar on average can produce electricity less than 12 hrs a day. Storage (or another power source) is necessary to make it useful. It's just basic science. Wind is similar. It still needs either storage or a backup. Every one of the above (except the hole in the ozone, which we did produce) has occurred at least as far back as the history of sedimentary rock. Violent weather is nothing new. The medieval warm period had our earth warmer than today, and the Ice ages had the earth much cooler than the day. Earthquakes have happened for the history of the earth. Tsunamis (which are a by-product of earthquakes) the same. Severe rain has always happened as well. The planet is saying "I'm variable, jsut like I always have been."
