The concept of solar panel will be renewed in architectural works.
Apparently, summer is when most scientists publish their news to the delight of readers. In this case, as a novelty that affects the field of architecture and many other sectors, a spray that claims to be the substitute for silicon solar panels. Let's imagine …What if you could cover the facade of a building with cladding pieces of different shapes and curves that are capable of producing energy using the sun? Or cover a roof with curved tiles that produce energy?… Or cladding a wall in a room and producing the energy capable of making the lights in the room work. Ufff … If recently we were talking about a synthetic sheet that will change the concept of ventilation in buildings, now we are talking about a new important advance, of eliminating those "unsightly" solar panels, uncomfortable in construction sites where they are a perfect target for the constant theft.
In principle we have to be clear about two points that suffer about solar panels:
- They are not very efficient
- It costs a lot to produce them economically
Given these conditions that are holding back the advance of renewables and specifically the solar energy It is working continuously, it is an aspect that moves many millions of euros with large companies behind investing money in research. The basis of the discovery is based on a new use of an unnameable material called perovskite, a peculiar material that has the property of absorbing light and is also abundant, which was discovered more than 150 years ago and the University of Sheffield has discovered how to create solar cells with a spray painting process.
The Perovskite is considerably cheaper to obtain and process than silicon, and the light-absorbing layer can be incredibly thin, around 1 micron at the very least, compared to at least 180 microns of silicon. That is why it is plausible as a coherent solution in the real world to apply it by means of an aerosol. This raises a somewhat awkward question … How efficient is the spray?
Currently researchers have gained an energy conversion efficiency of 11% from a thin layer. Traditional silicon-based solar cells have reached 19%. As they comment, it is a high value taking into account the result of the tests carried out.
The important advance is in the application model and the cost of producing it. Applications, well many, We will be able to paint a car, mobile phones, adapted construction parts and possibly, as technical advances, entire roofs of a building or the architectural element that we want., although it is already noted that in curved elements their conversion efficiency into energy is reduced. A single spray nozzle can be used to manufacture a small solar panel for personal electronics as well as for large objects.
How can we know more about this spray?…. Well, by directly accessing the Royal Society Of Chemistry (The Bible in Science) or the official report from HERE.
