SOLAR CELLS FOR CHEAP

13 January 2007

Author:
Kevin Bullis, Technology Review

Abstract:
Interview with Michael Gratzel. Fifteen years after the first prototypes, what Michael Gratzel calls the dye-sensitized cell (and everyone else calls the Gratzel cell) will soon be more widely available. Gratzel is now working on taking advantage of the ability of nanocrystals to dramatically increase the efficiency of solar cells.

The interview also notes the high energy use involved in manufacturing silicon-based cells: ‘People are trying to make silicon in a different way, but there's another issue: energy payback. It takes a lot of energy to make silicon out of sand, because sand is very stable. … If you want to sustain market growth at 40-50 percent, and it takes four or five years to pay all of the energy back from traditional solar cells, then all of the energy the silicon cells produce, and more, will be used to fuel the growth. And mankind doesn't gain anything. … Unless you can bring that payback time down to where it is with dye-cells and thin-film cells, then you cannot sustain that big growth. And if you cannot sustain that growth, then the whole technology cannot make a contribution.’

G24i reading scale:
Non-technical

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