Startup Makes Cheap Solar Film Cells With Inkjet Printer - Konarka Power Plastic - Popular MechanicsWhat would cheap power do to the economy? We're already seeing what expensive oil is doing - it'll be interesting to see how this plays out... if it does.This year could bring the Silicon Valley-funded renaissance in solar power we've all been waiting for. First, San Jose-based Nanosolar began delivering its affordable thin-film solar coating, followed by a construction boom in American solar thermal power plants—essentially the reflective equivalent of geothermal power. Now, for the first time, the solar cell revolution is arriving by droplet.
Konarka Technologies, the Massachusetts-based company we first recognized with a 2005 Breakthrough Award for its affordable Power Plastic solar film, said this week that it has successfully manufactured those thin solar cells using an inkjet printer. In addition to decreasing production costs because it relies on existing inkjet technology, the printable Power Plastic cells can be applied to a range of small-scale, highly variable power opportunities, from indoor sensors to small RFID installations.
J.
Comments (1)
Cheap electricity will help, but a lot of electricity is generated by coal, not petroleum, and we supply most of our own coal. Transportation is going to be dependent on petroleum for quite a while, as solar cells will be of little use to it (people are less willing to give up fast cars than they are in economizing at home, and solar power can move a car, just not quickly). Hydrogen is far off (there are onboard storage problems as it has to be stored as a liquid, a compressed gas or in solution [the last stores a lot less energy in the form of hydrogen than a tank of gasoline the same size does]) and requires more energy for production than you get from burning it or running it through a fuel cell. Bring it on, and more, please, but don't expect it to change the oil situation much.
Posted by John C. | March 10, 2008 8:45 AM
Posted on March 10, 2008 08:45