Mickeys Electrical Shop....all electrical questions and renewable sparks answered

mickeyblueiiiis

mickeyblueiiiis

No. 1 Superguy..
Messages
2,112
Reaction score
0
Location
in dee moooontains
Edit | Quote | Reply solar cell rolled across the desert- A group of scientists at the university of Toronto have invented a plastic solar cell; a composite that can be sprayed on other materials and used to provide portable electricity.

A jumper coated in this material could be used to power a portable mobile phone or other wireless devices and a hydrogen powered car painted with this material could convert enough energy to continually re charge the cars battery.

Ted Sargent an electrical and computer engineering professorat the university envisages that one day the plastic material could be rolled across deserts to generate enough clean energy to supply the whole planets power needs:

"The sun that reaches the Earths surface delivers 10,000 times more energy than we consume". "If we could cover 0.1% of the earths surface with very efficient large area solar cells, we could, in principle, replace all our energy habits with a source of power that is clean and renewable."

Plastic solar cells are not a new invention but existing concepts only utilis the suns visable light.

Half of the suns energylies in the visable spectrum; the other half in the infa red. This new composite is the first harness the infa red portion.

"Everything that is warm gives off some heat. So thereis actually some power remaining in the infa red spectrum even when it appears to be dark outside"

Specially designed nano particles, caled quantum dots, were combined with a polymer to make a plastic that can detect energy in the infa red spectrum.

The polymer is made by altering the hydrocarbons in petrol. It will allow up to 30% of the suns energy to be harnessed compared to6 % in existing solar cells. And thats the most efficient ones.

Food for thought hey
__________________
 
Does ne one know how tomake this a sticky, it will really help me out as work are layin the clamps down on tinternet useage. If i have a sticky then i can browse.....also i am happy to reserch and answer stuff on things that sparkalot'

Mickey
 
Do you mean you want to be able to quickly browse the subjects you've posted in?? Cos you can do that by going to "quick links" then "subscribed threads".

Interesting about the quantum dots. I think we'll be hearing a lot about these in the next few years, not just regards solar cells.
 
RedZebra said:
Do you mean you want to be able to quickly browse the subjects you've posted in?? Cos you can do that by going to "quick links" then "subscribed threads".

Interesting about the quantum dots. I think we'll be hearing a lot about these in the next few years, not just regards solar cells.
Click to expand...

no what i mean is i wanna be able to use the forum.......so i am putting up a little shop:ph34r:
 
i believe you'll be looking at between 0.3 and 0.5 % taking into account that this stuff is at best 30% efficient
you're looking at covering an area roughly the size of india in plastic.
a) i think some people might complain
b) you're looking at a shed load of this stuff, which means a fuckload of raw materials one of these being oil i'm guessing, you're also looking at a huge amount of money to do this.

apart from that it's good
 
but turning fossil fuels into solar cells which will continue to produce energy indefinately is a much more productive use of them than burning them, which only produces whatever energy they have stored inside them. and solar cells dont produce any pollution at all.
i think that when the technology improves so that more than 30% of the suns energy can be converted this will be a very viable energy source.
 
Colin OOOD said:
Given that it's made from "the hydrocarbons in petrol", if it can't generate more energy than those hydrocarbons would be able to release through combustion, seems to me it's a non-starter in the first place.

What we need is a solar cell made from vegetable-based oils...
Click to expand...


Well.................if there's ways of running massive piste machines on veggy oil...

Then while this is being pursued at it's outset, i'm gonna contact the UofT and find out:drinking:
 
Double_Helix said:
but turning fossil fuels into solar cells which will continue to produce energy indefinately is a much more productive use of them than burning them, which only produces whatever energy they have stored inside them. and solar cells dont produce any pollution at all.
i think that when the technology improves so that more than 30% of the suns energy can be converted this will be a very viable energy source.
Click to expand...


We have to admit.....................this is a massive breakthrough

In time as they become more comfortable with nano technology i feel that it's entirely possible to increase from 30%, after all this is the first time the infa red spectrums been utilised for renewable energy.....up untill now its been used for detection and photograpy.

i'm gonna get in contact with them at UoT............I dont suppose there's been an awful lot of intrest so far from the FE sector and i would like to follow it up and try to bring renewable energy into the syllabus. There will be some major breakthroughs soon.....I dont want to think like a dinosaur just because the system would like to paint us that way.
 
my knoweledge of things like this is very limited, but to be honestit does sound like a very good idea, i have 4 small solar panels(cells) which i use wen camping, these do provide enough energy to do what i need with. i wasnt aware that they only harness 6%, so if these new nano thingys get more from it, im all for it :)

(this is prob all jumbled up and doesnt make sense but it does in my head :) )
 
PsY_pYrO said:
my knoweledge of things like this is very limited, but to be honestit does sound like a very good idea, i have 4 small solar panels(cells) which i use wen camping, these do provide enough energy to do what i need with. i wasnt aware that they only harness 6%, so if these new nano thingys get more from it, im all for it :)

(this is prob all jumbled up and doesnt make sense but it does in my head :) )
Click to expand...



The very best current solar panels will harness 6%......yours probably will far far less than that.....i think it's great that you use solar panels for camping.

Where did you get them from?

The secret with this breakthrough is the nano technology in the quantum dots.......now i don't know the inns and outs of that...however, its a polymer, its flexible, can be made into different materials although the clever bit is still in there. Our solar technology uses rigid panels, easily broken, theres a lot of energy lost in the glass itself before the cell gets to recieve it. Heat and the like.......current solar panels only use the visible spectrum

Theres another 100% to be utilised

Mad innit
 
i got them from an electrical shop, but had to re wire them so i could use them as a plug socket (well my bro did) cant really remember how much they where, i see them n thought it would be nice to b able to charge my phone if i needed to, it also allows the use of a portable radio :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top