Urban solar energy: Solar panels for windows hit record 8% efficiency – The Michigan Engineer News Center 📦

2    25 Sep 2020 00:29 by u/stars_in_blue_major

Not sure how good this is https://ubiqd.com/solar/

3 comments

2 u/None 25 Sep 2020 01:15
I have a fairly long background following "clean energy" from an investment perspective. If I had $100 for every one of these grant applications disguised as a press release, I'd be Warren Buffett. Notice that there's nothing in the press release about costs or the impact of contamination (i.e. dirty windows) on production. They mention a *goal* of extending the life of these cells to 10 years. Compare that to single-layer PV panels, whose functional life (albeit with a degradation factor of roughly 0.75%/year) is 20 to 25 years. They quote a theoretical maximum conversion efficiency of 8% (compared to 20%-25% for single-layer PV panels), but the sun's rays have to be perpendicular. Needless to say, this imposes very significant construction and architectural issues, not to mention that the solar angle is always changing. I do wish them well, but trust me, no one should be holding their breath on this.
2 u/stars_in_blue_major [OP] 25 Sep 2020 01:19
Thank you for the explanation, I was hoping someone would know more about it. ...So not that great then lol.
1 u/None 25 Sep 2020 01:32
PV panels started really low too. Took a few decades until they were ready, and even today there are significant cost and performance issues that limit their use. When I had a new house built three years ago, I looked into panels for our place and they did not cost out, which is the only way I'd consider them. I could go on at great length about the downsides to solar panels, many if not most of which are not apparent to the buyers until afterwards. The hype in that business is thick enough to cut with a chainsaw. The article describes "thin film" solar, and I'm pretty sure that I saw similar conversion efficiency claims at least 10 years ago. So, quite honestly, I'm not entirely certain that they're describing any real progress -- although, given that I'm now retired and not in the same sort of close touch as I once was, I will readily admit that I might be wrong about that. In any case, I'm fairly well-equipped to go into a bunch more detail, but I'm wary of boring the shit out of people and pissing them off. No one is angrier than a solar weenie scorned. LOL