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Silicon plus perovskite solar reaches 34 percent efficiency
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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Love this research and I hope solar eventually beats ICE engines for efficiency.
However....
The differences in efficiency result in very different things.
ICE - heat, smoke, carbon, pollution
Solar -
Solar still indirectly creates pollution in the form of production of the materials needed, manufacturing, etc. Also, huge solar farms can have a significant detrimental impact on local ecosystems, in addition to the large amount of waste created from old panels: https://hbr.org/2021/06/the-dark-side-of-solar-power
https://www.popsci.com/environment/solar-farm-construction-epa-water-violations/
It's still better than ICE, as that also creates waste and actively pollutes, but it's still notable and hopefully over time those negative byproduct can also be eliminated/significantly reduced.
Agreed!
However ICE arguments include efficiency so that'll be one major obstacle hurdled
I'm not sure your comment makes a lot of sense. The problem with solar isn't that it's not as efficient as internal combustion engines, it's that you can't generate electricity on-demand. But it's already a cheaper form of energy than burning fossil fuels in many countries.
Internal combustion engine engines.
Sorry, I forgot to go to ATM machine before I wrote that comment
Do you still remember your PIN number though?
No, but I have a device with a LCD display where I can look it up
Clearly
Even conventional solar panels work better when they are cool. Someone smart figured out that you can pump water through them and then use that hot water in your house. You get hot water while making your solar panels more productive. Of course they are crazy expensive.
Given that the first perovskites studied had lifespans that could be measured in minutes, this is great progress, but the fundamental problem is that as a class of materials they just don't want to exist outside of an inert atmosphere. Without significant progress in stability and encapsulation materials, they're more of a research curiosity than a viable real-world PV tech.