[mythtv-users] [Slightly OT] solar power for all our gadgets

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Wed Mar 25 03:16:22 UTC 2009


On 03/24/2009 10:36 PM, Shawn Rutledge wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 8:14 AM, Simon Hobson wrote:
>   
>> It's not just that it's a specialty, it's that these things really are
>> non-trivial to make. Effectively, each panel is a silicon chip the size of
>> ... well a large panel. New designs come along from time to time, but at the
>> moment, the bulk of panels are big silicon chips.
>>     
> Back in the late 90's there was an issue of Popular Science with a
> cover article about the newly-acquired ability to make "solar
> shingles" by depositing thin layers of silicon on stainless steel.
> (And even earlier there were articles about "roll-to-roll"
> manufacturing processes.)  It seems you can actually buy solar cells
> that look like shingles now ("roof integrated", they call it), but
> they still cost more.  I don't get it; this technology should be
> cheaper than making the single-crystal cells.  Suspect somebody is in
> the way, acting as a gatekeeper (maybe it's a patent problem).

You should watch the Scientific American Frontiers episode, "Hydrogen
Hopes" ( http://www.pbs.org/saf/1506/ ), specifically the segment,
"Sunshine Hydrogen" ( http://www.pbs.org/saf/1506/segments/1506-3.htm
).  In it they have Stan and Iris Ovshinsky (
http://www.pbs.org/saf/1506/features/ovshinsky.htm ), who have a plant
that's manufacturing rolls of "goop" that's not a
crystalline-silicon-based solar cell that designed to be the same size
as a shingle, but is really just a thing file on top of a real tar
shingle.  They even stab a screwdriver through it several times while
it's generating electricity with no (noticeable) effect on its output.



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