{"id":667394,"date":"2010-02-17T15:54:54","date_gmt":"2010-02-17T20:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/?p=6762"},"modified":"2010-02-17T15:54:54","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T20:54:54","slug":"efficient-thin-film-solar-through-nanotech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/667394","title":{"rendered":"Efficient thin-film solar through nanotech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/www.technologyreview.com\/energy\/24547\/?nlid=2751&amp;a=f\" >nanotechnology design improves the efficiency of thin-film solar cells<\/a>. An important breakthrough in working to commercially viable solar power because thin-film cells are cheaper than photovoltaics, but efficiency has been an issue. The two key elements \u00a0in making solar energy widespread and a credible challenger to petroleum-based energy are lower costs (both in\u00a0installation\u00a0and maintenance) and higher efficiencies. Anything that works to combine those two elements is a step in the right direction.<\/p>\n<p>I just love blog posts that combine nanotechnology and solar power.<\/p>\n<p>From the link:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Thin-film solar cells are less expensive than traditional photovoltaics sliced from wafers, but they&#8217;re not as efficient at converting the energy in sunlight into electricity. Now a Newton, MA-based startup is developing a nanostructured design that overcomes one of the main constraints on the performance of thin-film solar cells.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.solastacorp.com\/\" >Solasta<\/a> fabricates on arrays of nanopillars, rather than flat areas, boosting the efficiency of amorphous silicon solar cells to about 10 percent&#8211;still less than crystalline silicon panels, but more than the thin-film amorphous silicon panels on the market today. The company says that the design won&#8217;t require new equipment or materials and that it will license its technology to amorphous-silicon manufacturers at the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.technologyreview.com\/files\/37120\/solasta_x220.jpg?w=780\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Pillar power:<\/strong> This microscope image shows the layers of a solar cell built on a nanopillar substrate. The core of each pillar is coated first with metal, then amorphous silicon, and then a transparent conductive oxide.<\/p>\n<p>Credit: Solasta<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>  <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gocomments\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/comments\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\" \/><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/godelicious\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/delicious\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\" \/><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/gostumble\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/stumble\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\" \/><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/godigg\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/digg\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\" \/><\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/goreddit\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.wordpress.com\/1.0\/reddit\/davidkirkpatrick.wordpress.com\/6762\/\" \/><\/a> <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/stats.wordpress.com\/b.gif?w=780\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A nanotechnology design improves the efficiency of thin-film solar cells. An important breakthrough in working to commercially viable solar power because thin-film cells are cheaper than photovoltaics, but efficiency has been an issue. The two key elements \u00a0in making solar energy widespread and a credible challenger to petroleum-based energy are lower costs (both in\u00a0installation\u00a0and maintenance) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2563,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4821],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-2NCq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2563"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=667394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=667394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=667394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=667394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}