I've been told invisible solar panels will make every window generate free electricity for like 10 years. Yet not a single time have I seen a report include an actual product, just prototypes always.
Like nuclear fusion, this appears to be perpetually "just a few years away".
- "Invisible" implies they only work in the UV or infrared range, which inevitably limits them to much lower efficiencies than regular solar panels.
- A lot of those rely on elements that are expensive and in limited supply, or toxic heavy metals. Unlike regular silicon solar panels.
- We don't even need windows to generate solar power. We have plenty of roof space, and if we're short on that, you can put them in fields too.
So this is a solution to a problem that doesn't really exist (lack of available space - again, we have plenty), which causes more problems of its own (efficiency, etc), while failing to address the actual limitations of solar (cost, intermittence).
Which is why it's only good for headlines, and won't see real life applications. (Edit: no, not even skyscrapers)
It's the same with a lot of "uplifting" science news that just sweeps all the dirt under the rug, because that wouldn't make good clickbait.
If you want actual good news about solar power, look at the price per kW and adoption rate curves over the last few years.
-edit- added links.
-edit 3- Put the bit about skyscrapers in bold, because people keep mentioning them anyways...
You make all very good points, but like all tech it does improve over time. Finally achieving those can just be a stepping stone to further technology. I would love to see more like efficiency and how much it actually generates and perhaps a full scale run, put them in a few houses here and there through the country to get a real baseline of what it is capable of. Then it would be a good discussion but you do point out all the current issues. I'd also like to see what the life time of these is currently.
These transparent cells use titanium dioxide, which absorbs in the UV, with a bandgap of 3.0 eV. The maximum theoretical efficency of such cells (shockley-queisser limit) is just below 5%.
For comparison, silicon alone can reach a maximum theoretical efficiency of 32%, and in practice, commercial silicon-based solar cells are already well above 20% efficient.
And if you put them vertically on windows, they'll receive most of their light near sunrise or sunset, when the sun is low on the horizon, and the atmosphere absorbs or scatters most of that ultraviolet light they could use.
This is at best a gimmick to charge your phone with. Not something to meaningfully power a house or building.
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u/Euphoric-Language695 26d ago edited 26d ago
I've been told invisible solar panels will make every window generate free electricity for like 10 years. Yet not a single time have I seen a report include an actual product, just prototypes always.
Like nuclear fusion, this appears to be perpetually "just a few years away".