I work for a living doing research on solar cells.
I downloaded the technical paper and had a quick look. It would have taken me days of hard study to understand what this undoubtedly clever people have done, even though I have a PhD in physics. From how excited they seem to be about their own work, I would guess its probably a very nice piece of theoretical physics. But a few things are clear, from their own words:
- They have not actually fabricated a solar cell, their most optimistic expectation based on this technology is 10% efficiency. With efficiencies bellow 14% you cant compete with other energy sources (you can not reach grid parity), even if your solar cells are so cheap that they are free. That is because the solar cell itself is only a fraction of the costs of solar energy. Think of land, maintenance, support structures, cabling, power electronics, and so on. That means that this concept, as it is, is useless for solar energy production, just like "organic" and other fashionable solar cell technologies.
- The effects they are talking about happen when light has an intensity, in their own words "as low as 10^7 W/cm2" that is a hundred million times more intense than the light from the sun. You need a big, expensive laser to observe the effects they are talking about.
- This is just one more case of people trying to spin their work as a revolution in solar energy, just because it is fashionable and it gives you publicity and funding for your research. They are probably fooling themselves in the first place, but that is no excuse. This type of thing is terribly detrimental for all of us, as it takes funding and attention from the solar cell technologies that actually work. This is a shame for the people involved, and for the University of Michigan.
- If you want to make a bet on solar cells, bet for III-V concentrator solar cells. These are the most efficient ones, by far, (above 40%), and can be used under optical concentration (up to a thousand suns) making the cost of the cell itself almost irrelevant.
From my not-still-incomplete engineering education I came to understand that "solar panels" are huge photodiodes.
Doesn't sound exiting at all. I get to the point of having a PhD like you, I guess nothing will excite me on the mass media when it comes to technology.
I downloaded the technical paper and had a quick look. It would have taken me days of hard study to understand what this undoubtedly clever people have done, even though I have a PhD in physics. From how excited they seem to be about their own work, I would guess its probably a very nice piece of theoretical physics. But a few things are clear, from their own words:
- They have not actually fabricated a solar cell, their most optimistic expectation based on this technology is 10% efficiency. With efficiencies bellow 14% you cant compete with other energy sources (you can not reach grid parity), even if your solar cells are so cheap that they are free. That is because the solar cell itself is only a fraction of the costs of solar energy. Think of land, maintenance, support structures, cabling, power electronics, and so on. That means that this concept, as it is, is useless for solar energy production, just like "organic" and other fashionable solar cell technologies. - The effects they are talking about happen when light has an intensity, in their own words "as low as 10^7 W/cm2" that is a hundred million times more intense than the light from the sun. You need a big, expensive laser to observe the effects they are talking about. - This is just one more case of people trying to spin their work as a revolution in solar energy, just because it is fashionable and it gives you publicity and funding for your research. They are probably fooling themselves in the first place, but that is no excuse. This type of thing is terribly detrimental for all of us, as it takes funding and attention from the solar cell technologies that actually work. This is a shame for the people involved, and for the University of Michigan. - If you want to make a bet on solar cells, bet for III-V concentrator solar cells. These are the most efficient ones, by far, (above 40%), and can be used under optical concentration (up to a thousand suns) making the cost of the cell itself almost irrelevant.