matthew o’connor and justin eure reporting for medill news service, northwestern university a new solar cell material could double the energy output of traditional solar photovoltaics, by reacting to nearly the entire light spectrum. developers at the lawrence berkeley national laboratory in berkeley, calif., announced research on the new material last week. \u201cit\u2019s a completely new technology,\u201d said physicist wladek walukiewicz, who headed the cell’s development. \u201cit\u2019s game changing.\u201d traditional solar photovoltaic panels are made from silicon, and respond to only a small portion of the light spectrum. panels have been developed that react with a wider range of light \u2013 multi-junction cells \u2013 but they are very complicated to make and too expensive for consumers. \u201cthey\u2019re useful in satellites for example, where you need as much bang as you can get and you don\u2019t care so much about the buck,\u201d said seth darling, research scientist in the center for nanoscale materials at argonne national laboratory, outside chicago. \u201cbut for large-scale earth-based solar power, that sort of technology is a very, very long way off from being cost competitive.\u201d that\u2019s where walukiewicz and his colleagues\u2019 research comes into play. rather than bonding multiple materials together to create a cell that can react to different light wavelengths, such as multi-junction technology, walukiewicz cell is made from a single semiconductor compound. it allows for the capture of more light photons from nearly all wavelengths. and that compound they developed, gallium arsenide nitride, is fabricated from relatively commonplace components. in fact, the gallium arsenide base is one of the most frequently used semiconductors and is fabricated in a familiar industrial method, walukiewicz said. \u201cif people hear about gallium arsenide, they like it because they know what it is,\u201d he said. \u201cit\u2019s not some exotic material.\u201d that translates to lower prices for consumers. when evaluating solar technology, it all comes down to cost \u2013 measured over the lifetime of the installation. one approach is lowering the cost of panels, which can be done by producing them on a larger scale. another option is developing a way to get more energy out. people want a return on their investment. fortunately, sunlight is free, abundant and not likely to run out for another 5 billion years. the global demand for oil, however, will increase far beyond potential supply by 2094, according to a 1999 study by the american petroleum institute. at that point, it becomes economically unsustainable, not to mention environmentally hazardous, to extract oil and sell it to consumers. and that prediction sits at the optimistic end of the spectrum. if mankind could replicate solar fusion and harness its power directly, the energy produced would likely exceed any projected needs. the energy unlocked by the sun in one pound of hydrogen gas could provide power to the entire united states for one week, said ronald taam, astrophysicist at northwestern university. a pound of gas, a week of power. \u201cin maybe 50 years they might have controlled fusion,\u201d taam said of current experimentalists. until then, we will have to settle for whatever energy-charged bounty the sun throws our way. the goal, then, is to catch more sunlight, and to do so cheaply and efficiently. \u201cthat\u2019s sort of the tact that is being taken here,\u201d darling said. \u201c[it could be] a way to improve efficiencies on what you could possibly do with something like plain silicon. \u201c the new material is still in development stages but could be available for practical applications in as few as three years, walukiewicz said. currently, we use about 17 terawatts of electricity worldwide, and that is projected to nearly double by 2050, darling said. and most of that power will likely still come from fossil fuels. \u201cit is a frightening energy mix in that timeframe due to climate change and other issues,\u201d he said. \u201cthis is why we need these breakthrough technologies in solar to really change that picture.\u201d while he recommends a combination of energy sources that include nuclear, wind and fossil fuel, darling said that solar is the only source that could provide all the energy we need. \u201cthe potential is as close to limitless as just about any energy source can be,\u201d he said. \u201cthere\u2019s enough energy coming from the sun, and that we could capture feasibly, to actually power the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
matthew o’connor and justin eure reporting for medill news service, northwestern university a new solar cell material could double the energy output of traditional solar photovoltaics, by reacting to nearly the entire light spectrum. developers at the lawrence berkeley national laboratory in berkeley, calif., announced research on the new material last week. \u201cit\u2019s a completely…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8740,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4917,4910,4891],"tags":[1718,758],"storyfest_categories":[],"class_list":["post-14006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-northwestern-university","tag-students"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n