https://archive.md/3KqDT
"On the outskirts of Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany, nestled among car
dealerships and hardware shops, sits a two-storey factory stuffed with
solar-power secrets. It’s here where UK firm Oxford PV is producing commercial
solar cells using perovskites: cheap, abundant photovoltaic (PV) materials that
some have hailed as the future of green energy. Surrounded by unkempt grass and
a weed-strewn car park, the factory is a modest cradle for such a potentially
transformative technology, but the firm’s chief technology officer Chris Case
is clearly in love with the place. “This is the culmination of my dreams,” he
says.
The firm is one of more than a dozen companies betting that perovskites are
finally poised to push the global transition to renewable energy into
overdrive. A few niche perovskite-based PV products are already on the market,
but announcements this year signal that many more are set to join them. Case
says that end users should get their hands on solar panels made from Oxford
PV’s cells around the middle of next year, for example. In May, a large silicon
PV manufacturer, Hanwha Qcells, headquartered in Seoul, said it plans to invest
US$100 million in a pilot production line that could be operational by the end
of 2024.
Silicon is the workhorse material inside 95% of solar panels. Rather than
replace it, Oxford PV, Qcells and others are piggybacking on it — layering
perovskite on silicon to create so-called tandem cells. Because each material
absorbs energy from different wavelengths of sunlight, tandems could
potentially deliver at least 20% more power than a silicon cell alone; some
scientists project much greater gains.
Perovskite supporters say that this extra electricity could more than offset
the additional costs of tandem cells, particularly in crowded urban areas or
industrial sites where space is at a premium. “Our biggest initial demand is
from utilities, because they simply don’t have enough accessible land,” says
Case."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-indigenous-rights-ecuador-deforestation-amazon-hiv-south-africa/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
