Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough

SOLAR REVOLUTION - Solar Paint
Ted Sargent is a pioneer in solar science. He's working on solar technology that could literally be woven into every aspect of daily life, from our clothes to our roads, using what is known as a spray-on solar cell. The implications for our energy systems are profound. As Ted says, "Solar energy is not just an exciting science problem, but an incredibly important human problem."

Ted is working on solar nanotechnology with the potential to make solar energy very cheap and allow society to collect it on a huge scale. Currently, solar technology costs more to build and install than most people are willing to pay. Solar panels, for example, the technology most commonly associated with solar energy, are installed on your rooftop. The cost of collecting one kilowatt per hour of solar energy (about a third of the electricity an average household uses on any given day) is about $11,000.

Not only are panels expensive to install, they capture only the visible portion of the sun's rays so they work only on sunny days. Ted's focus is the infrared portion of the sun's rays which accounts for more than half of all solar energy. What's more, infrared energy is available to us even in cloudy weather.
A quantum dot is a semiconductor nanostructure that confines the motion of conduction band electrons, valence band holes, or excitons (bound pairs of conduction band electrons and valence band holes) in all three spatial directions. The confinement can be due to electrostatic potentials (generated by external electrodes, doping, strain, impurities), the presence of an interface between different semiconductor materials (e.g. in core-shell nanocrystal systems), the presence of the semiconductor surface (e.g. semiconductor nanocrystal), or a combination of these. A quantum dot has a discrete quantized energy spectrum. The corresponding wave functions are spatially localized within the quantum dot, but extend over many periods of the crystal lattice. A quantum dot contains a small finite number (of the order of 1-100) of conduction band electrons, valence band holes, or excitons, i.e., a finite number of elementary electric charges.
Prof. Ted Sargent
Position: Professor
416-946-5051
Ted Sargent received the B.Sc.Eng. (Engineering Physics) from Queen's University in 1995 and the Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Photonics) from the University of Toronto in 1998. He holds the rank of Professor in the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he holds the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology. His book The Dance of Molecules: How Nanotechnology is Changing Our Lives (Penguin) was published in Canada and the United States in 2005 and has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, Korean, and Arabic.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Solar-Paint
• Solar-Power
• Breakthrough

[starman1695]

They claim to have invented this five years ago. Where is it?

[gatheringwithin]

@kotapaka you shouldn tell peaple to get the degree to discuss this subject, while you discuss it yourself without knowing the basics.

I there is there is a future it is defenitly with word sustainable in it.

And nuclear is not sustainable. The uranium and plutonium deposits will finish in not a far future, and the nuclear waste is difficult think to handle while nuclear fusion is still out of our technological range, the answer is wind, tidal and wave turbines, geothermal and ultimately solar

[WhenWeWereKings100]

@starman1695 Read my comment below

[WhenWeWereKings100]

This was actually created at ST Andrews university, power could be generated from ANY form of light on the paint. This was quicky swept under the rug by the so called " mr bigs" and Government in the UK. BP do after all make a certain profit off solar panels that are sold.

[iLOVENATURE2011]

outstanding video! =) it is good to hear that student are gaining interest in developing solar panels so that we can maximize its capabilities...

[amermahdy70]

the research was originally for night vision which is to utilize the IR to see at night using nano paticles named "Quantum dots ", and then they shift it to produce electrons out of IR which is electricity!!! where are they now ?

[LOPEZdJUNGLIST]

cunts

[pcfreak1010]

I feel that this is very unlikely for the next 10 years at least. I mean how could this really by true. Where would the electricity run to from the paint? The whole thing is obviously a load of horse shit. How much harder can you jerk my balls off? Come on....

[happinesson]

I hope someone can finance his theory.It might be a big leap in technology.

[nelrish24]

wew