Nanotechnology and Solar Energy

Combine nanotechnology and solar energy and what do you get? You get better efficiency, lower costs, and widespread use of one of our most renewable, clean resources. Nanotechnology has been introduced into many different forms of alternative energy but solar power seems to be one of the biggest beneficiaries.

Manufacturing and Material Challenges

Traditionally, there have been a few major problems with solar panel production. One was the lack of available materials. There just wasn’t enough of the silicone used to produce the panels, keeping costs high. There was also the high costs and difficulty of producing the panels.

Solar panels have been produced by first constructing the wafer-like cells. Then, the cells had to be put into vacuum chambers and have the semiconductor material injected. This was expensive mainly because of the size needed for the vacuum chambers and the cost to run them. Solar cells aren’t small, and making them large enough to produce the amounts of electricity being demanded by consumers was difficult.

New Production Methods & Greater Efficiency

Nanotechnology has created a new method of solar panel production. The energy collecting materials are printed onto rolls of thin foil, allowing them to be produced more quickly and cheaply. This foil or spray can be applied to just about any surface to start collecting solar energy. The foil itself can be made using many basic printers.

Another problem was the low efficiency of solar cells. These cells only collected a small percentage of the energy that the sun provided, and the rate of converting the energy collected was even smaller. As nanotechnology and solar power becomes much more efficient. Now, solar panels are able to collect almost all of the energy that hits them, and the conversion rate is much higher than before.

Nanotechnology and solar energy have also progressed in other ways. Part of the efficiency problems came from the movement of the sun. Solar panels have had to be pointed directly at the sun to achieve the maximum absorption. This means that during parts of the day the solar panels would not work quite as well as at other parts, missing out on a lot of energy.

This has been dealt with by installing machines that turned the panel with the sun. Using the nanotechnology, the panels no longer have to point directly at the sun. The spray contains layers of rods, which filter and redirect the direction of the sunlight that hits the panel, causing it to always hit at the proper angle for maximum absorption.

Solar Paint

Generating electricity by the paint on your house or business, it's no longer science fiction. Nano-solar paint is in development and it works like a solar panel but at a much lower cost. It is a sunlight absorbing paint coated onto the surface of aluminized mylar. This conducts electricity. It is coated with a clear layer of indium tin oxide that covers the paint and also conducts electricity when exposed to sunlight.

So, what does all of this nanotechnology and solar energy talk mean for you? Lower costs, higher efficiency, and fewer panels o needed to do the job. As this technology improves, more people will be able to afford solar energy, helping us all take another step towards energy independence.

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