Can Solar Panels Work In The Dark?

[KEVIN WOOD]

http://cleantechnica.com/2011/01/26/...e-in-the-dark/

According to some new research. YES

Well…it can almost see in the dark. Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have just announced that they’ve been able to confirm a new high-efficiency solar cell design that handles pretty much the entire solar spectrum. To ice the solar cake, the new technology can be manufactured using ordinary low-cost processes that are currently in use.
Harnessing the Full Spectrum for Solar Power

A conventional solar cell uses one kind of semiconductor, which captures light from one part of the spectrum. The new solar cell uses different materials, stacked in layers, that respond to different wavelengths. As explained by LBL writer Paul Preuss, the trick is to use one alloy, gallium arsenide nitride, but replace some of the arsenic atoms with nitrogen to create an intermediate energy band. This third band enables the semiconductor to respond to low and mid-energy wavelengths as well as the more “energetic” parts of the spectrum.
Lowering the Cost of Full Spectrum Solar Cells

In earlier trials, the researchers used different alloys that achieved full spectrum responses but involved very high production costs. The advantage of gallium arsenide nitride is that it is very similar to a conventional semiconductor, gallium arsenide, and it can be produced with a commonly used fabrication method involving chemical vapor deposition.
Full Speed Ahead to Full Spectrum Solar Cells

The Lawrence Berkeley breakthrough represents just one path to increasing the efficiency and lowering the cost of solar cells. Over at Ohio State University, a full spectrum solar cell is also under development, and Stanford is pursuing a new technology that cuts around the problem of solar cell efficiency loss due to high temperatures. And then of course there’s low cost solar paints on the horizon, new solar cell fabrication methods, and the use of low-cost materials for concentrating solar power…well, it may be just a bit too soon to say goody-bye to “yesterday’s energy” but we’re sure on our way.
Image: Moon by r w h on flickr.com.
Source: Clean Technica (http://s.tt/12ttb)

[David A. Andersen]

So would they be lunar cells now?

[KEVIN WOOD]

Technically there is no such thing as darkness. It is an absence of light!
So yes I would say if they work at night it will need to include the power from the moon and not the sun.
The bible called it the lesser luminary.
Genesis 1:16
"And God proceeded to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and all the stars."

[Jeffrey R. Jonas]

Originally Posted by kwood

Technically there is no such thing as darkness. It is an absence of light!
So yes I would say if they work at night it will need to include the power from the moon and not the sun.
The bible called it the lesser luminary.
Genesis 1:16
"And God proceeded to make the two great luminaries, the greater luminary for dominating the day and the lesser luminary for dominating the night, and all the stars."

Now that you brought Religion into the conversation... this thread needs to be banished to the NFE section. Nice going!!

[KEVIN WOOD]

OOPS!

[Michael Larson]

Sorry but this all sounds like flying car crapola from a '50s era Popular Mechanics magazine.

Where's my practical flying car?

[KEVIN WOOD]

Lawrence Berkeley breakthrough. I guess you will have to ask them if it is Crapola!!!!

[Michael Larson]

Originally Posted by kwood

Lawrence Berkeley breakthrough. I guess you will have to ask them if it is Crapola!!!!

pay attention

someday may never come.

and notice no discussion of working in the dark.

[KEVIN WOOD]

Add this and you are all set up for night and day!
http://strizkisystems.com/technology
Our Technology

Strizki Systems combines existing, proven technologies with innovative designs and proprietary controls to provide its customers with integrated, turnkey systems. The core technologies employed include:

Hydrogen gas separating from water

• solar photovoltaic (PV) modules, including architectural BIPV (built-in-photovoltaic)
• wind turbines
• biomass
• hydro turbines (for generating electricity)
• solar thermal collectors (for space and water heating)
• geothermal heat pumps (for heating and cooling)
• hydrogen electrolyzers (to generate gas for excess power storage, direct combustion)
• fuel cells (for reconverting gaseous hydrogen into power)
• hydrogen refueling stations (for appliances and vehicles)

Site-specific considerations and the customer's needs determine which technologies are employed. Strizki Systems also works closely with major component manufacturers, providing them with valuable field data and engineering experience to assist them in their product development. This ensures that REI has access to the latest generation of technologies available. In addition, we develop proprietary components when the marketplace doesn't have what we need.
Traditionally, renewable energy systems have suffered from intermittency issues; that is, the inability to store the energy produced when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow. Until now. Strizki Systems captures and stores excess power as hydrogen, making renewable sources the most reliable energy assets in existence. If the sun comes up, you're in business! Stored hydrogen allows system owners to level their loads, exercise smart grid interactivity, and if desired, to use excess gas for direct combustion.
Consider this--every manned space mission since the 1960's has relied on a self-contained system to provide for its energy needs: solar modules to generate electricity, an electrolyzer to make hydrogen from water, and a fuel cell to reconvert the stored hydrogen into electricity, heat, and drinking water for the astronauts. NASA relies on these technologies for failsafe operation in space, and here on Earth the component manufacturers and Strizki Systems have logged millions of hours of trouble-free operation.
Strizki Systems has taken these components and integrated them into turnkey systems for residential and commercial applications. And we’ve done all of the heavy lifting in meeting international building codes and gas standards; our systems are engineered to be easily permitted and deployed virtually anywhere in the world. All equipment Strizki Systems installs is certified to UL compliance or an equivalent standard, and multiple safety features are engineered into all of Strizki Systems’s systems. Numerous quality checks and vigilant system performance monitoring ensure that safe operations govern every step of system installation, commissioning, and ownership. Operational data from the field verify that Strizki Systems’s systems work safely, reliably, and as designed over time.

[Michael Larson]

Question for KEVIN:

Why spend money on these exotic and very very expensive and unproven technologies when there is so much energy available in oil, coal, natural gas and nuclear available at much much lower cost?