User:Snehappriyan/Solar paint

'Solar Paint Technology'

  Solar paint technology is at the heart of Solar Paint, a low cost renewable energy business that holds the secret to a potential revolution in cheap energy production. 
The concept of a liquid, paint-on solar cell is old news these days, but a research team from the University at Buffalo in New York has come up with an interesting new angle. The team is working on a paint-able solar material enhanced with nano particles of metal, in order to achieve a cost competitive level of efficiency. Does that mean solar paint could be as cheap as ordinary paint some day. 

Solar paint technology is renewable, recyclable and features low CO2 energy production. Research at the University of Newcastle's Priority Research Centre for Organic Electronics points to a solar paint that may be printed onto plastic, integrated into tinted windows and other building materials, making the whole structure itself a source of power and delivering a revolution in the industry.

Lowering The Cost Of Solar Paint

The UB team is working on a class of organic photovoltaic material that can be loosely described as plastic. In contrast to conventional solar cells made of silicon and other inorganic substances, organic solar cells are based on long chains of hydrocarbon molecules called polymers.

Organic solar cells are far less efficient at converting sunlight to electricity than conventional solar cells. However, organic materials have several major offsetting advantages.

Namely, organic materials are far less expensive than conventional solar cell materials, and organic solar cells can be manufactured using standard, inexpensive processes. Organic solar material could also piggyback on other building surfaces as paint, or it could replace ordinary window glass in the form of transparent solar windows. Enhanced Solar Paint

Offsetting can only get you so far, though, and that’s where the nanoparticle enhancement comes in.

According to the research team, organic solar cells need to reach a conversion efficiency of about 10 percent to be competitive in the mainstream market. To get closer to that goal, the researchers deployed an emerging player in solar technology, the field of plasmonics.

Plasmonics refers to the ability of light and metal to produce an electrical charge, as electromagnetic waves and free electrons oscillate between metals and semiconductors. The plasmonic effect can be induced with nanoparticles of metal or with nano structures (the research team has tried both), with the result that more light is trapped within the solar material.

A team based at Stanford University is also working on plasmonic-enhanced solar material, and a team at UC-Santa Barbara is working on a free-floating plasmonic device that could harness solar energy to convert water into hydrogen fuel.

Solar Paint As Cheap As Ordinary Paint!

Now, let’s pick apart this idea that solar paint could simply sub in for conventional paint in terms of price. “Solar panels as inexpensive as paint?” is the headline of the University at Buffalo’s recent press release for the research team, but a straight up cost comparison between solar paint and ordinary paint is not exactly what the researchers had in mind.

The comparison refers to the idea that conventional solar cells are far too expensive for many property owners and will probably remain that way for the foreseeable future, but solar paint could become relatively inexpensive.

The researchers are aiming to develop a solar paint that could fall into the category of affordable property upgrades. Maybe not quite as cheap as a fresh coat of ordinary paint, but not too much more than that, either.

That may seem a bit optimistic at this point in the research, but considering how fast the price of photovoltaic modules has been falling (an 80 percent drop since 2008), there’s at least a good possibility of success.

Solar Paint is a unique investment opportunity. Newcastle Innovation is offering the opportunity to participate at an early stage in the development of a technology that offers the prospect of delivering low cost renewable solar energy to the market with healthy returns to investors.

Why Invest?

   Solar Paint is a low cost renewable energy business that will compete with fossil fuel energy without the need for government rebates.
   Commercial returns: The global PV market is greater than $30 billion per annum and growing at a rate of 10 per cent. Potential royalty based earnings of more than $50 million within five years of commercial launch (based on assumed 10 per cent market share in target markets). IPO or trade sale potential within three to five years at multiples of between 10-15x initial investment.
   Ethical investment: Renewable, recyclable, low CO@ energy production. A potential low cost solution to remote community energy requirements i.e. diesel replacement.

UON's Solar Paint is Unique

   Patent protected intellectual property (IP) that can double the efficiency of OPV systems
   Ability to manufacture SolarPaint products at low cost and high volumes 
   A water based eco-friendly and carbon neutral manufacturing process
   SolarPaint products are fully recyclable

A Focused Team and Access to World Class Facilities

UoN has invested a total of 75 person years and more than $10M in improving OPV fabrication technology. Professor Paul Dastoor (MA, PhD Cambridge) leads the Priority Research Centre for Organic Electronics (COE ), a multi-disciplinary team of 20 scientists and engineers with deep OPV expertise.

The team have devised a water based OPV fabrication process where the size and chemical characteristics of OPV nanoparticles can be closely controlled. They have demonstrated that controlling OPV surface morphology can double the efficiency of a standard OPV system and leads to the creation of Solar Paint.

External links

• [1]
• [2]

--Snehappriyan (talk) 12:02, 10 June 2013 (UTC)