Solar cells that are thinner than hair will soon appear everywhere

One of the reasons many people think solar photovoltaic energy will dominate the world is because it can expand in ways that no other energy source can.

Panels can be used to build power plants hundreds of megawatts, or be scaled down to a few people think.

Specifically how small? What if we say that it is smaller than the width of a hair?

Korean scientists have created solar cell batteries that are only 1 micrometer thick, which is hundreds of times thinner than most solar panels and only half as thin as most solar cells. Other solar film sheets.

These panels can be integrated into almost anything.

These battery cells are made up of Gallium Arsenide as a semiconductor, "cold-welded" directly onto a metallic material without using any binder. More notably, they can produce nearly as much energy as thick solar cells, while being able to roll into a cylindrical tube with a radius of only 1.4mm.

With this thinness, these solar panels can be integrated into all wearable accessories, such as clothes, mirrors, hats or backpacks, to provide continuous power for the devices. Our electronic equipment. More precisely, these panels can be integrated into almost everything.

However, this is not a cell ever built. In February 2016, researchers at MIT created so small and light solar cells that they could be placed on a soap bubble without breaking it. A researcher in this group has said that the key to doing this is to make solar cell batteries, materials that support it, and a coating that protects it from environmental impacts in the same process. Supporting materials are created during battery cell manufacturing and never need to be treated, cleaned or removed from the vacuum during assembly, to minimize the possibility of being affected by dust or other Other matter can reduce battery performance.

The manufacturing process of this ultra-thin battery cell is carried out in a vacuum chamber at room temperature, without any solvents or high temperatures needed to create traditional solar panels. The researchers say this assembly process can be applied to a variety of materials, including quantum dots or perovskites - solar panels that are small and transparent enough to mount. windows or construction materials.

Perovskite.

Of course, these are just scientific discoveries, and the path from scientific innovation to commercial products is very long, and there are many challenges.

But the trend towards improving solar energy is clear. Battery cells are getting smaller and more flexible, using new assembly technologies that use less resources. However, they are still very expensive, to say is super expensive and will not decrease in the near future. Ultimately, these new methods will also be launched and replicated. When they are replicated, the new cost can be reduced.

Photovoltaic (PV) is a different technology than any other energy technology. It can change the way we look at energy, from something that requires being created at a given place into something we can "harvest" wherever you are. The cheap, compact and flexible solar cell batteries can be integrated into construction materials, roads, bridges, parking lots, vehicles, clothing and even skin. we.

Each tiny cell will not produce a large amount of energy, but in return they will be available everywhere. And when sunlight diffuses into the infrastructure, energy storage and management methods will also change.

It will be time for the entire environment of human civilization to become a giant energy-harvesting and harvesting machine. The energy system will no longer be something based on infrastructure, but a part and can be scattered across many different infrastructures. Most or all of the energy that urban dwellers need will exist in a continuous network and always "flow" around them.

It sounds like science fiction. But it is certain that the children born today will grow and see that happen.