solar power – Australian Science

The Future of Solar Power Technologies in Australia

Dunya — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 00:15:17 +0000

As the cost of fossil fuels go up around the world, and the impact of climate change becoming increasingly avoidable, people are looking for reliable, alternative sources of energy. With the favourable climate in Australia, it’s a no-brainer that solar power is the way forward. But gone are the days of inefficient panels at extraordinary prices – and Australian researchers are leading the way.

Cutting edge solar panels

About solar power

Solar power is fast becoming the top choice for families and businesses looking to cut down on their electricity bills and minimise their impact on climate change. In the past, the cost was inhibiting, but as technology improves and costs come down – it is being rapidly implemented.

Solar power can be used for a variety of purposes – some use it in combination with standard energy while others use it as a sole energy provider. It can also be used as a standalone technology to heat a hot water system, which can be a popular choice as heating can account for up to 70 per cent of energy bills.

In the past, solar energy could only be captured and used at that same moment – but now, solar systems are able to store energy during the day and then release it at night, making it a much more practical choice.

Australia and solar power

Australia is a global leader in solar power technology. There are nearly 17,000 people employed full-time in the solar industry and there are now over one million solar power systems installed across the country, compared to just 8,000 in 2007.

A 2013 report into Australia’s solar energy future found that despite Australia being the world’s sunniest continent, solar energy was largely underutilised. However, it also found that the price of solar power systems were dropping so fast that in some areas the cost was almost competitive with standard electricity companies, and the cost of installation was less than a quarter of the price a decade ago. (Flannery, T., 2013)

Solar station in White Cliffs

Current solar power technology

Solar power technology has come a long way even in just the past few years, and Australians now have numerous options when it comes to choosing a solar energy solution. Options include manufacturers, materials used and the technology within the solar panels, too.

There are three main types of solar panels – polycrystalline, monocrystalline and amorphous modules. There are numerous others, but these are the most popular choices due to efficiency, cost and aesthetics. For example, monocrystalline tend to be the most efficient, but are not as cheap as polycrystalline is cheaper to produce. In the past few years, though, the cost of monocrystalline panels have dropped – making them the most popular choice for Australians.

Future of solar power

It is estimated that by 2050, solar power will account for 29 per cent of Australia’s energy needs. (Flannery, T., 2013) To achieve this, technology needs to be continually advancing – and new solar technology is already on its way, with Australia leading the research. Here are a few key developments happening in Australia right now.

Printable Solar Panels

Australian researchers have recently developed a method of producing printable solar cells. A printer that has been installed at CSIRO is capable of printing solar cells in A3 size – the largest ever created. Although they are not ready to be released to the public, the technology – and low cost of production – is a good sign of things to come.

Solar Power Farms

In August 2013, the University of Queensland announced that it had would be leading a $450 million solar farm project in western New South Wales. A joint initiative between the Federal Government and AGL Energy, the project will see the building of the southern hemisphere’s largest solar power plant, bringing renewable energy into many more homes. (UQ, 2013)

The building of solar farms has the benefit of providing mass solar power and minimising our carbon footprint, without the need for individual homes to have solar panels installed.

Mildura Solar Concentration Power Station

The largest step towards increasing solar energy in the state of Victoria is due to be completed in 2017. The Mildura Solar Concentration Power Station, which will become Australia’s largest concentrated solar panel plant on completion, is set to be a 100MW power plant and currently has 40 CPV dishes already feeding power into the region’s grid. The technology to be used at the power station was originally developed by Boeing to be used on satellites.

The company who owns the power station, Silex, has said that the cost of energy could drop to 10c/kWh ($100/MWh) within a few years using their innovative technology, which – if achieved – is a significant decrease. (Renew Economy, 2013)

Conclusion

Considering the huge increase in uptake of solar energy in just the past five years, solar is clearly the way forward for Australia’s energy supplies. Not only is it cost-effective but it utilises a resource that is naturally available to us and doesn’t require Earth-destroying mining or drilling to get to it.

Although solar power is already a relatively significant part of energy in Australia, technology still has a long way to come before it is considered our primary source.

Images by Kenny Louie, Jimmy Joe and Richard Gifford.

test

The post The Future of Solar Power Technologies in Australia appeared first on Australian Science.

Printed solar cells as easy to produce as t-shirts!

Markus — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 00:05:43 +0000

Australia is really taking the initiative in alternative energy production. The latest news is that a consortium of Australian researchers have succeeded in producing printable solar cells, in a process which might just have the potential to revolutionise solar power production across the continent. Perhaps, we can only hope, the world.

Succinctly, a new printer which has been installed at CSIRO is capable of printing solar cells the size of A3 sheets of paper – the largest ever created. Printing onto sheets of flexible plastic, it can produce these at a rate of 10 metres per minute (one new and fully functioning solar cell every 2 seconds!), and those cells can produce between 10-50 Watts per square metre, dependent upon how much light they receive. Oh, and the best part? The printer uses no brand new or special technology. In fact, it’s not a lot different to mass producing printed t-shirts!

The group responsible refer to themselves as the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium (VICOSC), and they’re made up of a collaboration between CSIRO, The University of Melbourne, and Monash University, together with a handful of industry partners. Over the past 3 years, they’ve been working on printing solar panels. Starting with a cell the size of a human thumbnail, they’ve scaled their way up to larger and larger sizes. And they have plans. Big plans.

Dr David Jones, Professor Andrew Holmes and Dr Scott Watkins, three of the researchers involved, together with one of their printed solar cells.

I mentioned a little while ago in my article about wind power, that I’m a keen advocate of alternative energy. This is because, and let’s be frank here, energy based on crude oil is not sustainable in the long term. I could list dozens of reasons why this is the case, not least of which is the fact that oil reserves are limited. But the biggest factor is pollution. We really need to start taking better care of this world.

Australia, it has to be said, receives one thing in abundance. Sunlight. Developing solar power seems like something of a no brainer, especially for more isolated areas. In fact though, the Earth receives a staggering amount of solar energy constantly.

Sunlight hitting Earth carries with it approximately 174 petawatts (174,000,000,000,000,000 watts!) of power. Of course, for the most part we’ll never be able to harvest it. Around 30% is immediately reflected back into space (which is good, because otherwise our planet would boil). But if we could harvest just 0.01% of the solar energy hitting our planet, we would have more power than the entirety of human civilisation can currently use!

Realistically, powering everything on our world with solar power may not be feasible. But a significant fraction of global energy needs could be easily met with solar power – particularly in areas which receive a lot of sunlight. Areas like much of Australia. The new techniques developed by VICOSC could make solar energy much more accessible to the world at large.

Firstly, the printing techniques they use are familiar to us all. Essentially, it’s much the same as screen printing – except that they use semiconductive inks which can be printed onto either flexible plastic or steel, dependent on where precisely they’re needed. Even better, the group are currently researching new non-chorinated solvents to use, making the entire operation even more environmentally sound!

The newly installed solar cell printer at CSIRO.

While the new printer at CSIRO to produce these solar cells cost a total of A$200,000, the future component costs are tiny. These printed energy collectors work out at a price of just A$1 per watt! Needless to say, this is a huge improvement over any solar panels the market can currently offer.

The group suggest a couple of particularly interesting uses for their printed solar cells. For a start, they can actually be used to improve the efficiency of existing solar cells. The two technologies absorb sunlight at different wavelengths. This means that the same area of solar cell could be able to effectively collect twice the power.

Even more dramatically, there are plans to further scale up the printing equipment they’ve used (because why not, right?) and create much larger cells. These could be laminated onto the windows of large buildings like skyscrapers, making any city into its own power plant. Effectively a single typical skyscraper (for example, the Century Tower in Sydney) could “generate” over 100 kilowatts of power just by standing there.

The new printed solar cells aren’t quite ready to be released to the public just yet. But it sounds like they might be soon. Currently, they’re still undergoing tests. To date, they have a theoretical maximum power of 80 watts per square metre, and the cells currently being produced have a lifetime of over 6 months.

The current goal is to raise their useable lifetime to 2 years. But of course, given how ambitious VICOSC have been so far, I doubt they’ll stop there. Maybe we should start thinking about taking the word “alternative” out of “alternative energy”.

Image credits: CSIRO/VICOSC

Cite this article:
Hammonds M (2013-06-27 00:05:43). Printed solar cells as easy to produce as t-shirts!. Australian Science. Retrieved: May 07, 2024, from http://australianscience.com.au/environmental-science/printed-solar-cells-as-easy-to-produce-as-t-shirts/

test

The post Printed solar cells as easy to produce as t-shirts! appeared first on Australian Science.