Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #01017
To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: ares2@ix.netcom.com (Theodore .W Mazzoli)
Date: Fri, 26 Feb 1999 04:08:18 -0600 (CST)
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Fwd: Solar cell recommendations?
This must be from the article in the NewScientist, Jan. 23rd, 1999
issue. WWW.newscientist.com
Great article, though they say Swatch is the one coming out with the
watch with the transparent face.
And they say you can have much thicker layers that are not transparent,
that provide greater power.
The dye and pigments used, are from ordinary white paint, the stuff
that makes white paint white.
They have only just made this new breakthrough public about 8 or 9
months ago, so it will be awhile before they actually make it to market
as regular solar cells we can use. Or at least that is what I would
assume.
Reply-To: Justin
> Apparently solar cells have been developed using titanium
> oxides combined with some type of dye (I forget the specific name)
which
> outperform silicon cells in efficiency and cost. The cells are also
transparent which is good or
> bad.
That would be cool. I've sometimes find it annoying that I can't put
the
light sensors behind the solar panel. It would also allow a single
"windscreen wiper" arrangement to clean both the cell and the sensors.
A dumb question on a related note, since these things obviously won't
be
drawing much energy from visable light, which end to they get it from -
IR or UV? Would I be right in assuming that it is roughly the same part
of the spectrum as normal solar cells? Could I go further and assume
that
1) Dave knows a fair bit.
2) He designed the photopopper with IR sensors.
Therefore:
3) Solar cells use (predominantly?) IR light?
They should also be able to act as solar cells/windows for
> buildings supplying much of the internal electrical needs (the only
> current problem with this is a dye that is truly transparent to
visible
> light and some materials issues for cells this large).
Buildings these days seem to go for tinted glass anyway. The dye only
has to be "mostly" transparent :-)
Maybe we could do heaps of BEAM promotion over the next 6 months, and
raise it's populatarity from the current hundreds to somewhere in the
multi-millions (we don't want it _too_ popular, just enough to have
market power :) and then order enough of the new cells in bulk to get
the technology established.
Sound like a good idea?
After that, we'd probably have enough market power to get them to make
cells that run on moonlight. That would just rock. Then we'd be one
step
away from starlight. And after that, cells that run on darkness. Just
imagine the potential applications!
:-)
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