On the left: Yi-Bing Chen holds the new
solar panel to the sun.
On the right: Doug MacFarlane, one of the
members of the Monash Solar cell team.
Image: Neil Bennett
Any robber would love to get their hands on a money printing press but they'll have to wait in line as scientists aim to use polymer bank note technology to power homes with a new generation of solar cells.
A unique collaboration between Melbourne's Monash University, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), bank note printer, Securency, and industry partners like Bluescope Steel, aim to use technology that foils counterfeiters to produce cost-effective, large-area solar cells that can be built into off-the-shelf roofing products.
Within five years home builders could find installing solar collectors on their roofs as easy as installing sheets of roofing iron.
Researchers at Monash are involved in efforts to develop a new generation of solar cells that are lighter, cheaper and able to be embedded in future roofing materials.
The concept takes advantage of the latest developments in polymer bank note printing, and is a move away from the current photovoltaic technology.
Currently most commercially available solar cells are made from refined, highly purified silicon. The significance of this new technology is that it does not use silicon, which is expensive and difficult to produce, but instead uses carbon-based organic materials, laid into the polymers. This means manufacturers will be able to produce cost-effective solar collectors for Australians who want to produce their own electricity.
The ability to use thin polymer film for solar cells will allow energy generation to be built into building components such as roofs, walls and furniture. Energy will be generated in the home or workplace where it is used.
Monash's Faculty of Science Federation Fellow, Professor Doug MacFarlane, said the potential of the technology was enormous.
"The cells would be embedded into roofing products that your builder would buy at the hardware store. Solar cells would be an integral part of the roofing," explained Doug.
"All that would have to be done to produce household electricity would be hook the sheet up to an inverter to step up the voltage and when you were not using electricity you would be sending power into the grid and getting a credit for it."
Dr Udo Bach from Monash's Faculty of Engineering said printable cell technology offered many advantages over current solar panel technology.
"They were lightweight, easily transportable, flexible and cheap to make," said Udo.
"Because they are partially transparent they can be installed almost anywhere, including on the roofs of homes and cars, or on windows or glass panels. The cells also float, allowing them to cover pools or dams, reducing evaporation while also generating energy.
"Polymer solar cells could also be used as coatings on portable electronic devices or as a component of clothing and other textiles."
They are also suited to situations where there is low or indoor lighting when the efficiency of current silicon solar cells decreases rapidly. Conventional solar cells are naturally inefficient in low sun and cloudy conditions.
Generating energy with solar cells is environmentally friendly as, not only are they silent, they produce no emissions and use no fuel other than sunlight.
In addition, polymer solar cells take just 10 tonnes of plastic to produce
100,000km of film, about the same amount required to produce a container of plastic bags, and generate the same amount of energy as a conventional coal fired or nuclear power station.
In February this year solar cell prototypes made of thin plastic and printed like money were produced on Securency's presses in outer Melbourne.
Doug and Udo are part of the $12 million Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium, which is half funded by the Victorian Government. Other partners and financial contributors beyond Monash are the CSIRO, the University of Melbourne, Securency, BP Solar, Bluescope Steel and Merck Sharpe and Dohme.
Editor's Note: Article first published in ANSTO's monthly newsletter, Velocity - science in motion. For permission to reproduce this article please contact ANSTO. Velocity can be subscribed to free of charge here.
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