Proletariat.
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CBC News
A University of Alberta team says
it's making advancements in a technology that could revolutionize solar
power.
The researchers, led by U of A professor Jillian Buriak, who's also a senior
research officer at the Edmonton-based National Institute of Nanotechnology, are
fine-tuning solar cells made of flexible polymers.
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Previously developed at the University of Toronto and elsewhere, the plastic
solar panels are as thin as a human hair and can be sprayed or rolled onto a
surface like paint or wallpaper, or even woven into fabric.
Prototype solar cells have been made that look like business-card-sized
Canadian and Scottish flags, for instance, while researchers have suggested the
material could be incorporated into clothing and used to recharge wireless
devices like cellphones.
Buriak and her team hope the solar cells will be commercially viable as early
as 2015. "What we are trying to do is find a way to mass produce plastic-based
solar cells," she said.
The researchers say there would be many applications for the technology.
"In the military, for example, soldiers would usually have to carry around a
30-pound battery with them wherever they would go," research student Brian
Worfolk said. "Instead they can just replace that with a one-pound flexible
solar cell."
Cost is key
Solar panels made from silicon are the current standard, but they are
expensive, typically resulting in costs upward of 25 cents per kilowatt hour of
electricity generated, or several times the average price Canadian households
pay for power. The latest wave of solar technology - including plastic cells and
what are called light-guided solar optics - promises far lower manufacturing
costs and the possibility of high volumes.
"If you can bring down the cost of solar, of electricity generated by solar
so it competes with coal, then you've got a winner," Buriak said. "Right now,
silicon can't do it. It's just too expensive to make."
