Technology

59289 readers

4645 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

412

Scientists develop mega-thin solar cells that could be shockingly easy to produce: ‘As rapid as printing a newspaper’ (finance.yahoo.com)

submitted 11 months ago by L4s to c/technology

131 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Scientists develop mega-thin solar cells that could be shockingly easy to produce: ‘As rapid as printing a newspaper’::These cells could be laminated onto various kinds of surfaces, such as the sails of a boat to provide power while at sea.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] MeanEYE -1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Kind of like these? Flexible solar panels are not a problem. And no, being newspaper thin will never be stronger than mounted on rigid surface. If it bends it has a definite limit in number of times you can bend it.

As for "printing a newspaper" and rapid production, when I see it I'll believe it. At the moment it's nothing more than speculation as they themselves have not made it yet. Every manufacturing process starts slow and then speeds up as process is optimized. The problem is whether there is a financial incentive to start producing in the first place.

[–] Treczoks 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

By "flexible" I did not imply "use it as a hinge". It was more like: "you can install it on a non-flat surface", e.g. by gluing it down. Now that surface would provide the needed overall stability. Imagine having you cars roof and engine hood being completely covered in solar cells - or basically be a solar cell. No, you would not be able to drive it as an EV with the amounts of power provided, but it could trickle charge a battery, or power a fan in hot weather so the interior will not be boiling when you return to your vehicle after a day at work.

[–] MeanEYE 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

We already have the panel type which is glued on. But I guess it remains to be seen whether there's a financial incentive to mass produce this.

[–] Treczoks 1 points 11 months ago

Indeed. Price is the key issue.