MIT's Self Repairing Solar Cells

 

Self assembling and self-repairing solar cells - there's something very Terminator about it.
 
While solar panels are very long lasting and most manufacturers now provide a 25 year power output warranty, the cells do degrade over time due to constant bombardment by the sun. A traditional solar panel may function for decades, but with each passing year its efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity slightly lessens.
 
Conventional silicon-based photovoltaic cells suffer little degradation, but significant degradation can be experienced by thin film based solar products. 
 
Plants are exposed to the same sort of harsh conditions, but being living creatures; they are able to repair any damage done. Plants continually deconstruct their damaged light capturing molecules and rebuild them. 
 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology scientists have succeeded in replicating a key aspect of that process, a first step towards the creation of self-repairing and self-assembling solar cells.
  
Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering Michael Strano and his team have produced synthetic molecules called phospholipids that form discs and provide structural support for other light-responsive molecules in structures called reaction centers, which release electrons when struck by particles of light.
 
The discs are in a solution where they attach themselves spontaneously to carbon nanotubes  - hollow tubes of carbon atoms capable of conducting electricity a thousand times better than copper. The nanotubes act as wires to collect and route the flow of electrons knocked loose by the reactive molecules.
  
When a surfactant is added to the mix, the components disintegrate and form a soupy solution. When the surfactant is removed by forcing the solution through a membrane, the compounds spontaneously reformed into a rejuvenated photocell, with no loss of efficiency.
  
The efficiency of these molecular structures in converting sunlight is an impressive 40 percent and could theoretically be brought to close to 100 percent. However, the concentration of the structures in the solution is low and the team are now working towards finding ways to greatly increase the concentration. 
  

Solar Powered Probe To Visit The Sun

 

NASA has embarked on a mission to visit and study the sun closer than ever before - and it will also be the closest that solar panels have ever been to a star. 
 
The craft will first fly by Venus multiple times as part of seven gravity assists that will help propel it towards the sun. Solar Probe Plus will get as closes as 6.4 million kilometres to the sun's surface, into its corona; a region that no other spacecraft has ever reached.
 
The car sized spacecraft will incorporate special heat resistant solar panels which will fold into the shadows of a protective solar shade, leaving just enough precision angled solar panel showing to generate power as the craft draws closer to the sun. And very hot it will be - the carbon-composite heat shield must withstand temperatures exceeding 1,400 degrees Celsius. The craft and solar panels will also be exposed to intense radiation.
  
The journey will seek to answer two important questions: why the sun's outer atmosphere is hotter than its visible surface and what propels the solar wind. According to Dick Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics Division in Washington, science has tussled with these questions for many years and this mission should finally provide those answers. Solar Probe+ will help to characterise and forecast the radiation environment in which future space explorers will work and live
  
The Solar Probe Plus mission is part of NASA's Living with a Star Program; designed to help us understand aspects of the sun and Earth's space environment that affect life and society.
 

Renewable Energy a Cash Windfall for Investors

 

According to Timothy Nelson, Head of Carbon and Sustainability Strategy at AGL Energy, last year USD250 billion (AUD273 billion) was spent on energy generation equipment and construction around the world. 
 
Over half of those funds were directed into renewable energy sources such as large-scale solar arrays, wind turbines and hydro-electric generators.
  
As more nations introduce mandatory renewable energy targets, investor can enjoy the dual satisfaction of tapping into a potential river of clean energy gold while helping to fund the fight against climate change at the same time.
 
Timothy Nelson: "The opportunities in the alternative energy market lie across the supply chain. If you look at the production of equipment, more investments need to be made. China for instance is seeing a boom in the volume of production capacity for solar photovoltaic energy." 
 
Mr Nelson says there are two main drivers of economic opportunity for investment into renewable energy globally: 
 
"Firstly, government policy; Australia has recently passed a legislation of a 20 per cent renewable energy target, and China is a key driver of renewable investment through mandated policies around portfolio standards."
 
"The second change revolves around technology; as we get more volume through solar photovoltaic production, prices will come down and the opportunities for retailing solar to customers will increase. Thus, the opportunities lie at both ends of the supply chain," Mr Nelson said.
 
Mr Nelson will speak about key element of successful alternative energy investment strategies at the Marcus Evans APAC Alternative Investments Summit 2010 taking place in Singapore next month.
 

19 Australian Energy Retailers Back A Carbon Price

 

As Australia’s political future looks set to be decided early this week, the nation’s peak clean energy body, the Clean Energy Council, has called on whoever forms government to set a price on carbon as soon as possible.
 
The Clean Energy Council has released an open letter signed by nineteen of Australia’s major energy retailers – the letter also reminds us these companies are major employers and supporters of renewable energy projects in regional Australia - which says that a carbon price is essential to meeting our emissions reduction target of 5 per cent below 2000 levels by 2020.
 
Signatories to the letter include AGL, TRU Energy, GE, and Pacific Hydro.
 
Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Matthew Warren, said Australians wanted the government - whichever side of politics manages to gain power - to take action on climate change, to provide cheaper clean energy and that business wanted certainty to invest in more renewable energy projects and jobs.
 
"An emissions trading scheme is widely recognised as being the most efficient way of reducing emissions across the economy," Mr Warren said.
  
"It is a policy that has been supported by Professor Ross Garnaut, former Prime Minister John Howard, former Coalition Leader Malcolm Turnbull, the Greens and the Labor Party."
  
Mr Warren said the political stand-off between rural independents and the major parties following the federal election was a positive for the environment and put renewable energy policy back on the mainstream agenda.
  
"We welcome and congratulate the role the independents are taking in ensuring climate change policy remains on the radar of the major political parties," Mr Warren said. "Renewable energy is also great for rural and regional Australia - it will create growth, greater economic diversity and help drought-proof farms and regions."
  
The open letter can be viewed here (PDF)
  

News for Sunday 05 September, 2010

 

• USA's Cash For Clunkers: A Lesson For Australia
  

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