CES 2023 hasn't happened yet, but you can expect many tech entrepreneurs to dazzle the world with sustainable and remarkable technologies that open many possibilities. It was in CES 2023 that GAF Timberline Solar Shingles became famous and gained its fast-tracked reputation as an outstanding alternative to traditional solar panels. This year, we might see some groundbreaking marvels that can become widely implemented in the years to come.
First, the silicon alternative perovskite may get featured by researchers during the show. Perovskite is a bountiful and readily available resource that may drive down the cost and speed of manufacturing solar panels. It has many promising capabilities that could have it replace silicon entirely as a key solar cell component.
Next, solar technology storage might have made leaps within the last three years. Effective storage is a crucial component for further solar technology adoption because it would let properties collect energy and save it for later. Some technologies already exist today but have reported speedy energy losses.
Lastly, we might also see new solar energy collection technologies under development or already implemented. One of them are solar panel windows, transparent materials that can serve as windows and collect energy from the sun. It might also be solar panels that generate energy through heat radiated by buildings and the surroundings.
In the far future, we might even see the implementation of fabrics as solar collecting technologies. MIT has recently had a breakthrough with it. Read more about their feature below in Chemical Engineering.
Developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, Mass.; www.mit.edu), these durable, flexible solar cells are glued to a strong, lightweight fabric, making them easy to install on a fixed surface. They are one-hundredth the weight of conventional solar panels, generate 18 times more power-per-kilogram, and are made from semiconducting inks using printing processes that can be scaled in the future to large-area manufacturing.
Already six years ago, the research team from the Organic and Nanostructured Electronics Laboratory (ONE Lab) produced solar cells using an emerging class of thin-film materials that were so lightweight they could sit on top of a soap bubble. But these ultrathin solar cells were fabricated using complex, vacuum-based processes, which can be expensive and challenging to scale up. In this work, described in Small Methods, the thin-film solar cells are instead entirely printable.
To produce the solar cells, the researchers coat the solar cell structure using a slot-die coater, which deposits layers of the electronic materials onto a prepared, releasable substrate that is only 3-µm thick. Using screen printing, an electrode is deposited on the structure to complete the solar module. The researchers can then peel the printed module, which is about 15-µm thick, off the plastic substrate, forming an ultralight solar device. To prevent the fragile device from tearing, the module is glued to a composite fabric (Dyneema) that weighs only 13 g/m2. (Continue reading here to learn more)
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