Double Carbon Research | "Inkjet" Solar Panels Bring Cheap Clean Energy

November 22, 2024

"Inkjet" Solar Panels

Bring Cheap Clean Energy

New research shows that a solar coating 100 times thinner than a strand of hair can be "inkjetted" onto backpacks, mobile phones or car roofs to harness the sun's energy, an advance that could reduce the world's need for large-scale land-consuming solar farms.

Scientists at the University of Oxford's Department of Physics have developed a microscopic light-absorbing material that is so flexible that it can be applied to almost any building or surface, and currently can generate about twice as much energy as solar panels.

The technology comes at a critical time for the boom in solar power generation, as human-caused climate change is rapidly warming the planet and forcing the world to accelerate its transition to clean energy.

How it works: The solar coating is made of a material called perovskite, which absorbs solar energy more efficiently than the silicon-based solar panels currently in widespread use. That's because its light-absorbing layer can capture more light from the solar spectrum than traditional solar panels. And more light means more energy.

The Oxford scientists aren't the only ones to have developed this coating, but it's highly efficient, capturing about 27% of the energy in sunlight. By comparison, today's solar panels, which use silicon cells, typically convert at most 22% of sunlight into electricity.

The researchers believe that over time, using perovskites, the conversion rate will exceed 45%, noting that they have increased the conversion rate from 6% to 27% in just five years.

"This is important because it can provide more solar energy without the need for silicon-based solar panels or purpose-built solar farms," said Oxford scientist Junke Wang. "We can envision applying perovskite coatings to a wider range of surfaces to generate low-cost solar energy, such as car and building roofs, and even the backs of mobile phones."

The coating is just over a micron thick, 150 times thinner than the silicon wafers currently used in solar panels. Unlike existing silicon panels, this perovskite can be applied to almost any surface, including plastic and paper, using equipment such as inkjet printers.

Globally, solar panel installations have surged, with installations increasing 80% in 2023 compared with 2022, according to Wood Mackenzie, a company specializing in data and analysis on clean energy transitions. Solar energy became the fastest-growing source of electricity for the 19th consecutive year in 2023, according to the 2024 Global Electricity Yearbook by climate think tank Ember.

The main driver of its boom is the falling cost of solar power generation, which is now cheaper to produce than any other form of energy, including fossil fuels. Another important factor driving the development of solar energy is its increasing efficiency in converting solar energy.

But ground-based solar farms require large-scale land occupation and are often the focus of conflict between governments and companies in the agricultural and renewable energy fields.

The Oxford researchers say the technology can solve this problem while reducing energy costs. But Wang Junke pointed out that the research team does not support the decommissioning of solar farms.

"We don't want to decommission solar farms because we need large areas of land or their surfaces to generate enough solar energy," he told CNN.

However, the main difficulty with using perovskites is their stability, which makes it difficult for developers to commercialize the technology. Some coatings in the laboratory dissolve or decompose after a short period of time, so they are considered less durable than current solar panels. Scientists are working to extend the life of the coatings.

Henry Snaith, the lead researcher of the Oxford team, said their work has strong commercial potential and can be used in industries such as construction and automotive manufacturing.

He said: "The latest solar materials and technological innovations developed in our laboratory may become a new industry platform, using existing materials for building, vehicles and objects to generate solar energy in a more sustainable and cheaper way."

Snaith is also the head of Oxford PV, a company in the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, which recently began mass production of perovskite solar panels at its factory in Germany.

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