Leapfrog via technology

We rarely see technology so vastly change/improve someone's life that this stands out.  A cheap solar light for reading will not only allow a child to study but also save famlies the money they spend on fuel for dangerous and harmful light via burning kerosene.  Its an amazing thing....take a look

Click to read more ...

Nanoshell Solar Advance at Stanford

The manufacture of these nanoshells is what interests me.  If the gains in efficiency are correct the only barrier to this tech reaching our rooftops is the manufacturing process. 

A few days back I posted a video from dmass which made some great points about reducing the amounts of materials needed.  These nanoshells are positioned perfectly to dovetail with this manufacturing method.   According to stanford 

The nanoshell structure likewise uses substantially less material, one-twentieth that of solid nanocrystalline-silicon.

“A twentieth of the material, of course, costs one-twentieth and weighs one-twentieth what a solid layer does,” said Jie. “This might allow us to cost effectively produce better-performing solar cells of rare or expensive materials.”

“The solar film in our paper is made of relatively abundant silicon, but down the road, the reduction in materials afforded by nanoshells could prove important to scaling up the manufacturing of many types of thin film cells, such as those which use rarer materials like tellurium and indium” said Vijay Narasimhan, a doctoral candidate in the Cui Lab and co-author of the paper.

Click to read more ...

Solar Plant in Spain Generates Electricity for 24 Straight Hours

After reading this I am endlessly consumed by the desire to know what the molten salt looks like. Anyway...not only is this a very cool (you know what I mean) report and development but also...the tower and surrounding area looks like a huge tower defense game.....i digress....please read the article.

Solar Plant in Spain Generates Electricity for 24 Straight Hours

"Here's some really exciting renewable energy news. Spain's Gemasolar concentrating solar power plant just became the first solar power plant to generate power for 24 continuous hours.


The plant uses a Power Tower design where a field of mirrors concentrate the sun's heat onto a boiler in the central tower. That boiler creates steam which turns a turbine. None of that is out of the ordinary when it comes to concentrated solar power, but the Gemasolar plant is the only one in the world to use molten salt as a heat transfer fluid, which allows for the storage and generation of electricity even once the sun goes down.


The 19.9 MW capacity plant on average is able to generate power for 20 hours a day and during the summer, many days will see 24 full hours of energy generation. The molten salt generation really makes a big difference here. Compared to the larger 21.2 MW Solarpark Calaveron plant that generates about 40 GWh per year, the Gemasolar plant generates almost triple that with 110 GWh per year.


Power storage is one of the major issues facing the growth of renewable energy generation. The wind isn't always blowing and the sun isn't always shining, but innovative storage solutions like the one at Gemasolar will be what turns renewable energy into not just a clean source of electricity but also a reliable one."

via Grist

'Cling-film' Solar Cells Could Be Revolutionary

Great!  Now can you cover my car is this sheeting so that when its sitting in the parking lot all day its actually making me money and selling it back to the grid?  Wouldn't that be a turn around.  You buy gas and sell back solar energy....perhaps breaking even?  Ok ok...i know its unlikely but its nice to think about.  Great tech here.  check it out.

'Cling-film' Solar Cells Could Be Revolutionary: "
An artistic image of a sextupole magnet, from Diamond Light Source, where the research was conducted.

Could it really be this easy? Harnessing the power of the sun with a window cling? Scientists from the Universities of Sheffield and Cambridge have published research on manufacturing ultra-cheap solar energy panels for large-scale domestic and industrial use. The idea is to use high-volume printing to produce nanoscale films of polymer solar cells -...Read the full story on TreeHugger