IBM creates decent solar cells from abundant materials

fifthcolumn · Post by **fifthcolumn** » 11 Feb 2010, 16:33

"IBM has built decent efficiency photovoltaic (PV) solar cells made from cheap copper, zinc, tin, and sulfur but rarer selenium. The efficiency is close to that of commercial thin film PV.

Researchers at IBM have increased the efficiency of a novel type of solar cell made largely from cheap and abundant materials by over 40 percent. According to an article published this week in the journal Advanced Materials, the new efficiency is 9.6 percent, up from the previous record of 6.7 percent for this type of solar cell, and near the level needed for commercial solar panels. The IBM solar cells also have the advantage of being made with an inexpensive ink-based process. "

This suggests to me that the so called bottlenecks in rare materials we have will be bypassed by using substitutes as I and other economist types have said all along. Surprise, surprise.

Andy Hunt · Post by **Andy Hunt** » 11 Feb 2010, 17:23

Good stuff!!

madibe · Post by **madibe** » 11 Feb 2010, 17:34

Good news for a change. Hope it will be cheap enough to have all sorts of surfaces plastered with it.

Mitch · Post by **Mitch** » 11 Feb 2010, 19:28

Yea - and Joanna technology panels were developed in South Africa in 2001 - 47% efficiency - and the tech. was sold to a German panel company in 2002/3. The panels will be univerally available to the public late 2003.................. Oh, how about Borealis Power Chips? Fantastic little things about the size of a 10p coin - can give you a couple amps at a few volts converting heat directly to electricity via a nano-vacuum, will be readily available 2005.............or then of course there is.......Oh whats the point.blah, blah, blah. All trash and rubbish to me

fifthcolumn · Post by **fifthcolumn** » 12 Feb 2010, 17:58

Mitch wrote:Oh whats the point.blah, blah, blah. All trash and rubbish to me

Is that you Marvin?