Scientists develop mega-thin solar cells that could be shockingly easy to produce: ‘As rapid as printing a newspaper’
Scientists develop mega-thin solar cells that could be shockingly easy to produce: ‘As rapid as printing a newspaper’
These cells could be laminated onto various kinds of surfaces, such as the sails of a boat to provide power while at sea.
Scientists develop mega-thin solar cells that could be shockingly easy to produce: ‘As rapid as printing a newspaper’::These cells could be laminated onto various kinds of surfaces, such as the sails of a boat to provide power while at sea.
If it's shockingly easy to produce then just do it and then you can write a declarative headline that doesn't need to use the word "could". If you can't then I'm guessing it's not that shockingly easy.
To echo the other individual who replied, it’s shockingly easy to make injection molded parts, but there is usually a long process before you bring the final product to market. And that’s with all the manufacturing processes already existing at scale.
In this case, the processes need to be fleshed out from scratch, which adds even more time to the ramp up. So even if the headline is 100% accurate, and there are no other roadblocks, it would still take a significant chunk of time to bring to market.
Time, money, man hours, etc, etc. All while still figuring out how to make it at scale and be able to sell it a a price that enables you to continue the business.
It's hard stuff, for sure.
"mega-thin"? Is that like "micro-large"?
Pepperidge Farm remembers when journalists had a grasp of the language.
This kind of affordable tech has been promised as "about to hit the market" since 2003. I'll believe it when I see it on the market.
bro i can run LED lights by putting wires inside my body
Kinky.
Since 1975, which is as far back as I can remember with this stuff.
I'm sure my parents would say the same.
was thinking the same thing. this printing press solar has been demoed and showed off for literial decades. and yet it just never seems to materialise in any meaningful fashion.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Man, y'all a bunch a grumpies.
This technology doesn't hinge on what we here believe or predict. It will happen or it won't.
We could speculate on how cool it would be, and how it could be used if it happens, instead of pooh-poohing it.
You guys realize that this is a significant step towards having moving pictures like in Harry Potter right?
please elaborate
And then we never heard of this miracle technology again
If it's true you can print it on cloth, and it has reasonable longevity, sailors will be buying the shit out of it.
I would imagine it could only be useful for 30 minutes before the cell would be unusable. Arent solar cells just P-N junctions where if it is really thin it would just run out of holes to fill?
Edit: why am I being downvoted? To my limited understanding from my electrochemistry courses from 10 years ago, photovoltaics depend on the density. Theres only a limited amount of free electrons and only a limited number of free holes. The thinner the material the less likely an electron hole can get filled with whatever N-doped semiconductor used.
By your logic all solar panels would run out of these holes after a certain period of use?
They might be right for other reasons though. I once worked at a lab where they were doing r&d on this sort of thin solar cells, and their stability and longevity was the #1 biggest problem. They worked great inside those anaerobic box thingies in the lab, but they degraded to nothing very quickly upon first contact with real atmosphere.
What? Newspapers not rapid. They are printed only once per day because of all the writing and editing that's required. Do it any faster and you'll end up with lot's of typos and factual errors.
The printing is fast.
Yeah, but do you want to be the person who has to fact-check every photon that hits these solar cells? I'm sorry, but a lie can radiate from the surface of a star and power your vehicle before the truth can even put its shoes on.