Australian researchers say their solar cells, printed on thin flexible plastic rolls, will be less than half the cost of conventional rigid solar cells.
Australian researchers say their solar cells, printed on thin flexible plastic rolls, will be less than half the cost of conventional rigid solar cells.
www.nature.com
The first demonstration of entirely roll-to-roll fabricated perovskite solar cell modules under ambient room conditions - Nature Communications
These use perovskite solar cells, a technology that promises extreme cheapness, but has problems with stability and efficiency. Research labs all over the world are working to overcome those problems, and this is a demonstration of that work in action.
The cheapness of renewables today is already an extinction-level event for the nuclear industry - what happens when solar is only half today's cost? ICE cars and their gasoline are next for extinction.
Today the average cost in the US of home solar installation is $12,700. China is making decent EVs for about the same cost. When solar halves, it means you'll be able to buy an EV car plus a lifetime of free fuel, for less than the cost of most gasoline cars.
The hard part about dropping solar installation costs is the installation part itself. It doesn't matter how cheap the panels get, it's always going to a few, to several, thousand dollars for the installation part alone. If we could find a way to streamline that (Idk if that's possible), then I think we'd see prices plummet.
Don't get me wrong, dropping panel prices is a very good thing. But I don't think it will make as much of a dent in the price as we might think.
Thin enough to roll suggests it would be lighter weight which should make it easier and cheaper to install, especially on a rooftop. They would still need solid mounts if they are raised above a household roof, but like the difference between mounts for old and heavy CRTs and today's lightweight flat-screens.
It also means that there are possibilities for simply mounting it on walls and other surfaces that currently aren't options because of the weight of panels or the need to align them just right to recoup the cost.
There are bifacial solar panels, i.e they have panels on both sides. You place them vertically, and because of bouncing light and the fact that the placement prevents overheating, they actually do better than single faced cells. You can get 6kw worth of panels for 3k, which beats the 12.5k average by a lot.
The killer here is that you can use them as a "solar fence" that doesnt require roof mounting. In that context, installation is much easier. Just some post holes and a light trench for the cabling run back to the electrical panel.
Add in something like the ecoflow battery/smart panel and you can have a solid total solar system with backup for around 10k, probally 15k installed.
Having cheaper solar panel just so we can buy more cars... What a strange idea.