Solar breakthrough to spell an end to nuclear power?

Published on Wednesday, Dec 21 2011 by David Sanderson

The way in which electricity is produced could be changed forever following a series of new breakthroughs in the solar power sector.

The developments would see a new form of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells printed onto construction materials - including glass - and letting them generate the necessary electricity.

Three international companies - US-based Pilkington Glass, the Welsh operations of Tata Steel and Australia-based Dyesol - have teamed up to create the new solar scheme.

Thus far, no definite date has been provided for when the new solar project could be rolled out, but estimates place "industrial production on a large scale" at around five years from now.

Energy and Environmental Management reported that James Durrant, from the Department of Chemistry and Energy Futures Lab at Imperial College London, told a recent energy conference about the increasing viability and positivity surrounding the project.

“If just 10 per cent of Tata's annual steel output was coated with DSSC, this would represent the output capacity equivalent to a 1GW nuclear power station per year,” he said.

The new solar system works by using 'dye-sensitised solar cells' (DSSC), which copy the way in which plants capture solar energy and use a photoelectrochemical system to do so.

The DSSC are then painted onto building materials such as steel and covered over with plastic or glass. Currently, modules created from the cells have around eight per cent efficiency, but the companies are confidence that they can increase this to 10 per cent over the coming five years.

Rodney Rice from Tata in North Wales told the news provider, “We use high speed large scale coating, on steel rolls 1.5m wide, put through at a speed of 200 metres per minute.

“This adds up to 200 million square metres of steel per annum, of which half ends up on buildings. If we assume 10 to 20 per cent of this is on a roof or wall and the PV is operating at between 8 and 10 per cent efficiency, then this will easily equate to 1 GW per year,” he added.

Mr Rice went on to say that they were developing their knowledge of printing coatings, and that the reasonably straightforward materials used were "reliable, simple to apply and easy to scale up as there is no vacuum and fewer people involved."

“This means it has the perfect attributes for the mass-market and the technology will work well in northern Europe where there are large surface areas of roof tops,” Mr Rice added.

Read more about the work being carried out into renewable energy at Imperial College London’s Chemistry and Energy Futures Lab by visiting the Chemistry and Energy Futures Lab website.