Newsgroup: it.discussioni.energie-alternative
Titolo: Una vernice solare a infrarossi

Un nuovo materiale di plastica consentirà di convertire l'energia del Sole 
in elettricità persino durante le giornate nuvolose
http://www.lescienze.it/sixcms/detail.php3?id=10214
 


Io non sono riuscito a trovare dettagli su tempi e costi.
Qualcuno è stato più fortunato di me?
Potete postare dei link se li avete.
Grazie.
        Pippo


 
Un piccolo articolo dal sito
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=20812
In a paper published on the Nature Materials Web site on January 9, senior
author and Professor Ted Sargent, Nortel Networks -- Canada Research Chair
in Emerging Technologies at the University of Toronto's Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, and his team report on their
achievement in tailoring matter to harvest the sun's invisible, infrared
rays.
"We made particles from semiconductor crystals which were exactly two, three
or four nanometres in size," Sargent said. "The nanoparticles were so small
they remained dispersed in everyday solvents just like the particles in
paint," explains Sargent.
Sargent's team then tuned the tiny nanocrystals to catch light at very long
wavelengths. The result is a sprayable infrared detector.
"Existing technology has given us solution-processible, light-sensitive
materials that have made large, low-cost solar cells, displays, and sensors
possible, but these materials have so far only worked in the visible light
spectrum," Sargent said.
The discovery may help in the quest for cheaper, more efficient renewable
energy resources. Specifically, it could help drive up the efficiencies of
current polymer-based solar cells which hold the potential to be
manufactured at a lower cost than current crystalline silicon cells but have
so far been unable to match crystalline power conversion efficiencies.
"Companies have already been formed which have discovered how to make
roll-to-roll, large area, plastic photovoltaics," Sargent said. "They face
the challenge of low efficiencies in harvesting the sun's power. Our work
has the potential to improve these efficiencies considerably.
Sargent expects their research breakthrough could see commercial
implementation within 3 to 5 years.
Flexible, roller-processed solar cells have the potential to harness the
sun's power, but efficiency, flexibility and cost are going to determine how
that potential becomes practice, said Josh Wolfe, Managing Partner and
nanotechnology venture capital investor at Lux Capital in Manhattan.
"These flexible photovoltaics could harness half of the sun's spectrum not
previously accessed," he said.
Professor Peter Peumans of Stanford University, who has reviewed the U of T
team's research, also acknowledges the groundbreaking nature of the work.
"Our calculations show that with further improvements in efficiency,
combining infrared and visible photovoltaics, could allow up to 30 percent
of the sun's radiant energy to be harnessed, compared to six percent in
today's best plastic solar cells," Peumans said.
U of T electrical and computer engineering graduate student Steve MacDonald
carried out many of the experiments that produced the world's first
solution-processed photovoltaic in the infrared.
"The key was finding the right molecules to wrap around our nanoparticles,"
he explains. "Too long and the particles couldn't deliver their electrical
energy to our circuit; too short, and they clumped up, losing their
nanoscale properties. It turned out that one nanometer - eight carbon atoms
strung together in a chain - was 'just right'."
Other members of the U of T research team are Gerasimos Konstantatos, Shiguo
Zhang, Paul W. Cyr, Ethan J.D. Klem, and Larissa Lavina of electrical and
computer engineering; Cyr is also with the Department of Chemistry. The
research was supported in part by the Government of Ontario through
Materials and Manufacturing Ontario, a division of the Ontario Centres of
Excellence; the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
through its Collaborative Research and Development Program; Nortel Networks;
the Canada Foundation for Innovation; the Ontario Innovation Trust; the
Canada Research Chairs Programme; and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship.
Information courtesy of Sonnet L'Abbe, University of Toronto
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