Some days I think climate change is going to get more of us faster than the public health disaster of ongoing wars. Some days I think the opposite. At least science and technology can have an effect on changing our energy consumption away from fossil fuels, whereas they only seem to increase the numbers and agonies of deaths in war, never decrease them.
Imagine a solar panel without the panel. Just a coating, thin as a layer of paint, that takes light and converts it to electricity. From there, you can picture roof shingles with solar cells built inside and window coatings that seem to suck power from the air. Consider solar-powered buildings stretching not just across sunny Southern California, but through China and India and Kenya as well, because even in those countries, going solar will be cheaper than burning coal. That’s the promise of thin-film solar cells: solar power that’s ubiquitous because it’s cheap. The basic technology has been around for decades, but this year, Silicon Valley–based Nanosolar created the manufacturing technology that could make that promise a reality.
Popular Science: Innovation of the Year
There are other companies deep into R&D for thin-film solar, this Australian firm, for example as well as BPSolar, Kyocera and the big Chinese giant, SunTechPower. What seems to be unique about the Nanosolar product is its lack of silicon and the “printing press” technology for production. The weight reduction and lack of need to be mounted give this some definite advantages.
[Cross posted at Ruthgroup.org]
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