Live data from Hacker News

Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

pv-magazine.com

21–30 of 86 posts

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#21

I thought solar conversion efficiency was a large fraction already. There's no room for 1000x improvement. Maybe 20%. What is this title talking about?

A similar question was in the comments of the article and reply from the Author: --- Ralph A Hutton August 6, 2021 at 1:40 am 1000 times? That means a normal size panel ,area about one square meter, that produces 200 watts , would be capable of an output of 200 kW. I look forward to that. I believe, and this needs confirming, the maximum available power from one square meter is about one kW. What have I misunderstood…

Can we change title to reflect this?

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#22

I thought solar conversion efficiency was a large fraction already. There's no room for 1000x improvement. Maybe 20%. What is this title talking about?

A similar question was in the comments of the article and reply from the Author: --- Ralph A Hutton August 6, 2021 at 1:40 am 1000 times? That means a normal size panel ,area about one square meter, that produces 200 watts , would be capable of an output of 200 kW. I look forward to that. I believe, and this needs confirming, the maximum available power from one square meter is about one kW. What have I misunderstood…

Can someone explain this to me like I'm 5 for me?

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#23

What is: Power output per m2? Durability (life span)? Production cost? At least theoretical ...

This type of cheeky criticism is probably fair when you have a startup claiming crazy numbers with no prototype, but this is reporting on a paper from a research institution. No need for snark.

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#24
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A similar question was in the comments of the article and reply from the Author: --- Ralph A Hutton August 6, 2021 at 1:40 am 1000 times? That means a normal size panel ,area about one square meter, that produces 200 watts , would be capable of an output of 200 kW. I look forward to that. I believe, and this needs confirming, the maximum available power from one square meter is about one kW. What have I misunderstood…

Can someone explain this to me like I'm 5 for me?

the previous best output for this type of solar cell was nowhere near the state of the art. they found a more efficient structure that narrows the gap. the advantage of this type of solar cell is that it’s potentially much easier to produce, but before now it’s efficiency has been very low compared to the state of the art.

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#25
For those like me, who didn't get this at first.

It's about improving output from ferroelectric solar cells, a specific type of solar cells, which are easier to build than regular ones made of silicon. But they usually aren't as effective as the silicon ones.

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#26
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A similar question was in the comments of the article and reply from the Author: --- Ralph A Hutton August 6, 2021 at 1:40 am 1000 times? That means a normal size panel ,area about one square meter, that produces 200 watts , would be capable of an output of 200 kW. I look forward to that. I believe, and this needs confirming, the maximum available power from one square meter is about one kW. What have I misunderstood…

Can someone explain this to me like I'm 5 for me?

This Red widget is 1000x better than older Red widget designs. Even though Green widgets are still much better.

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#27
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A similar question was in the comments of the article and reply from the Author: --- Ralph A Hutton August 6, 2021 at 1:40 am 1000 times? That means a normal size panel ,area about one square meter, that produces 200 watts , would be capable of an output of 200 kW. I look forward to that. I believe, and this needs confirming, the maximum available power from one square meter is about one kW. What have I misunderstood…

Can someone explain this to me like I'm 5 for me?

Say ferroelectric crystals used to be 0.01% efficient, and this paper brings it to 10%. That would be an increase of 1000x, but still below the current best which is ~20%-30%. (The 0.01%/10% percentages are illustrative only, I don't know what is claimed in the paper.)

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#28
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can someone explain this to me like I'm 5 for me?

This Red widget is 1000x better than older Red widget designs. Even though Green widgets are still much better.

But red widgets might be cheaper to mass produce. Maybe. I don't know I'm knee deep in analogies now.

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A similar question was in the comments of the article and reply from the Author: --- Ralph A Hutton August 6, 2021 at 1:40 am 1000 times? That means a normal size panel ,area about one square meter, that produces 200 watts , would be capable of an output of 200 kW. I look forward to that. I believe, and this needs confirming, the maximum available power from one square meter is about one kW. What have I misunderstood…

Can we change title to reflect this?

I don’t know if the title was already changed since you wrote this comment, but the current title of “Crystal arrangement results in 1,000x more power from ferroelectric solar cells” is accurate.

Re: Crystal arrangement results in more power from ferroelectric solar cells

#30
post #25

For those like me, who didn't get this at first. It's about improving output from ferroelectric solar cells, a specific type of solar cells, which are easier to build than regular ones made of silicon. But they usually aren't as effective as the silicon ones.

yup, my thoughts exactly. otherwise a 1000x increase in 30%-ish efficient pv silicon-based solar cells would be far above unity
Post reply on HN