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Solar Cells to Get Brighter with New Tech-Driven 4th Generation
Green Technology Featured Articles
July 30, 2013

Solar Cells to Get Brighter with New Tech-Driven 4th Generation

By Steve Anderson
Contributing TMCnet Writer

Solar power is a wonderful idea that works great on paper, but when put out in the real world, often delivers results that are less than optimal. But with some new technology, that may well change, and the basic combination of factors that should go into solar panels' fourth generation technology may well have finally been pinned down.


The reports indicate that a project from the University of Surrey's Advanced Technology Institute, led by professor Ravi Silva, has identified the necessary organic and inorganic materials alike that will comprise the fourth generation of solar cells, which in turn will be put to use making the new solar technology that will gather more power and take some of the heat off generating technologies of the current era.

Silva describes the fourth generation solar cell as using both organic polymer films and nonorganic novel nanostructures to create a combination approach that is flexible and stable over a lifetime, as well as overall low-cost. But in turn, this combination—also called “inorganics-in-organics”—of technologies allows for greater improvements in solar energy gathering and conversion to useable electricity, representing improvements even over the most recent third generation solar technology.

The University of Surrey is part of a larger coalition—the European Union FP7 SMARTONICS program—that is working on developing such technologies to help meet the growing worldwide demand for energy consumption. Given that the global capacity for generating solar power is, by some accounts, passing 100 gigawatts, it's clear that making more solar power is becoming steadily more important to augment more traditional methods which depend on finite fuel supplies. Silva recently outlined how the solar power generation industry was advancing, working to take advantage of all that sunlight to bring down the overall costs of energy, and to establish electrical generating facilities in areas where combinations of geography and topography work against traditional generating methods.

Indeed, improvements to solar power generation systems are generally worthwhile. Dropping prices and raising output are very important, especially to get individual homeowners interested in such plans. After all, if each house—each building—could be used to inexpensively generate a little power, that would drop the amount of power required from sources like coal or nuclear, extremely valuable sources of power that do have something of a shelf life. A mix of power sources is a smart idea, extending the useful life of coal and nuclear power while at the same time allowing individual buildings to chip in power generation as well as take over should something happen to grid transmissions. But at the same time, to achieve such a mix, the prices of such installations needs to be within reach for the standard homeowner, and be sufficiently effective that at least minimal power needs can be met. Solar needs to be on par, in terms of price per kilowatt-hour, with current generation tools before it can really catch on. That point is being approached, and only gets closer with fourth generation technology.

Hopefully soon the prices will drop and the output will climb, making solar power generation viable for most anyone who wants to use same. But for the time being, fourth generation solar power will bring us that little bit nearer to a day when every building makes its own power, and coal and nuclear are there to fill in the gaps on cloudy days or in areas where sunlight is minimal.




Edited by Alisen Downey


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