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Perovskites, a ‘dirt cheap’ alternative to silicon, just got a lot more efficient

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https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/metal-perovskite-solar-cells-vs-silicon-efficiency-550212/

Essentially, energy conversion is '250% more efficient'. If existing panels are about 20% efficient, then 250% of that would be 50%, so instead of producing 200 watts of electricity per square meter, they would produce 500 watts. Some perovskites can do better, so the conversion efficiency could be as high as 60%, or 600 watts per square meter.

Someone living alone in a one bedroom apartment might use 1Mwh per month, or 1000Kwh assuming an electric water heater and a heat pump HVAC. 1000Kwh / 30.5 days is roughly 33Kwh per day. 33Kwh divided by 5 hours of solar exposure per day is 6600 watts worth of solar panels. At 20% conversion efficiency, this would cover 30 square meters or 330 square feet. At 60% conversion efficiency, this would require 10 square meters or 110 square feet. A typical car is 6' wide x 15' long, or 90 square feet. At 60% conversion efficiency, this would be almost enough solar power to eliminate any need to 'charge up' from an external power source.

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(edited)

So...

Someday, to recharge your EV, you just let it set in full sunlight for a handful of hours.

...and avoid driving at night.

Edited by turbguy
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(edited)

Now if said perovskits did not DIE due to exposure to light or.....🤣

Edit: Fine I actually read it and no, it is not 250% increase... Rather it is one aspect of said solar cell over one small area can increase by 250% gain.  It is based on a wave function, so total area gained will be area under the curve of the sine function.  Not peak.  So, we are talking most likely about 30% increase(nothing to sneeze at).  Oh yea and it requires a noble metal like silver, gold, platinum, niobium. Good Luck on that one.  This is like fuel cells, they work wonderfully.... if only we had mountains of platinum....

Edited by footeab@yahoo.com

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16 minutes ago, footeab@yahoo.com said:

Now if said perovskits did not DIE due to exposure to light.....🤣

In fairness most everything is damaged by exposure to sunlight.

Skin cancer, photo-oxidation of paint, plastics, etc.

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1 hour ago, TailingsPond said:

In fairness most everything is damaged by exposure to sunlight.

Skin cancer, photo-oxidation of paint, plastics, etc.

Suggest you understand what the word, fairness, means before using it

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On 4/10/2023 at 12:25 PM, turbguy said:

So...

Someday, to recharge your EV, you just let it set in full sunlight for a handful of hours.

...and avoid driving at night.

Batteries work just as well at night. 

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On 5/10/2023 at 6:26 PM, Paul-S said:

Batteries work just as well at night. 

Agree!

That said, if solar really gets good, why use batteries at all?

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On 5/12/2023 at 8:33 PM, turbguy said:

Agree!

That said, if solar really gets good, why use batteries at all?

What if the future of transportation is underground?

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