new underground solar panels: Cheap, 3D and 6x More Efficient

This research from the Georgia Institute of Technology changes things:

Scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created the world’s first 3-D photovoltaic solar system that actually works underground.

Using optical fibers common to the telecommunications industry, researchers seeded them with zinc oxide nanostructures–much like the white stuff found on a lifeguard nose. Those nanostructures were then coated with a dye-sensitized material that converts light into electricity. The electricity is then captured using a liquid electrolyte surrounding the nanostructures.

So only the very tip of the cable needs to be exposed to actual sunlight.

This technology could really displace many panel-based solar systems and is a formidable accomplishment for the southeastern engineering school, away from nanotechnology and sustainability academic enclaves like MIT or the west coast:

This 3-D system can be easily concealed, leaving rooftops panel-free. It gives architects and designers new options for incorporating PVs into buildings. For each cable is only 3-times the width of a human hair.

“This will really provide some new options for photovoltaic systems,” Dr Zhong Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology said. “We could eliminate the aesthetic issues of PV arrays on building.”

study reports global warming due more to land use changes than to direct CO2 emissions

A new study from Georgia Tech in the December issue of the Environmental Science and Technology journal reports that

“50 percent of the warming that has occurred since 1950 is due to land use changes (usually in the form of clearing forest for crops or cities) rather than to the emission of greenhouse gases,”

and that

“emissions reduction programs – like the cap and trade program under consideration by the U.S. Congress – may not sufficiently slow climate change in large cities where most people live and where land use change is the dominant driver of warming.”

On the other hand this does suggests some correlation with fossil fueled vehicles operative upon cleared concrete settings.

Building-integrated photovoltaics: Solar Power, With Style

Photovoltaics aren’t just functional anymore; now they’re fabulous. Production has gone aesthetic as initial U.S. small scale manufacturing of shingles, tiles and different building materials with internally sealed photovoltaic cells has commenced. Of course they’re further along the trend in Europe than in the U.S.—largely due to government subsidies— where building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPVs) already make up around 3 to 4 percent of the total solar market, but it’s all foretelling: a demand signal for maximally seamless renewable architectural themes in both commercial and residential construction.

Instead of traditional fixed panel installations or add-on fixtures like solar panels, the new BIPVs will be available in varying colors and shapes and will “fit in” with a larger design theme—for example, that of he traditional curved clay roofing tiles of Southern California pictured here.

Several cross geographical U.S. firms are in the mix but some domestic early movers along one highlighted value chain poised to bring this construction technology to market appear to be these: United Solar Ovonic of Rochester Hills, MI supplies flexible solar modules to SRS Energy of Philadelphia; SRS bonds silicon cells to its curved Sole tiles for sale through firms like U.S Tile of Corona, CA.