Nanotube solar panels?

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Guest

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:39 pm

Hi
I've read a little about the MIT effort to use nanotubes to increase
the "surface area" of capacitors. I was curious if there was any
effort to do the same for solar panels? In other words I'm wondering
if anyone is researching the use of nano-technology to increase the
efficiency of solar panels.

Just a curious non-scientist wondering when I'll be able to pick up
that 3ft solar panel and capacitor combination that will power my house
at Walmart... ;-)

Thanks

Steve O'Hara-Smith

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 8:14 am

Guest

On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:39:03 -0000
splever@gmail.com wrote:

Quote:

Just a curious non-scientist wondering when I'll be able to pick up
that 3ft solar panel and capacitor combination that will power my house
at Walmart... Wink

Even if it were 100% efficient a 3ft (square) solar panel will only
pick up something like 800 watts on a clear day in an equatorial desert,
and rather less in other parts of the world and weather conditions.
Needless to say that 100% efficiency is not possible but the kind of
cheap atomically precise engineering that MNT promises should make it
feasible to get as close as possible to it as well as providing means to
improve the energy efficiency of the house - oh yes and perhaps eliminate
the need for Walmart :)

--
C:>WIN | Directable Mirror Arrays
The computer obeys and wins. | A better way to focus the sun
You lose and Bill collects. | licences available see
| http://www.sohara.org/

Guest

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:14 am

Steve O'Hara-Smith wrote:

Quote:

On Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:39:03 -0000
splever@gmail.com wrote:

Just a curious non-scientist wondering when I'll be able to pick up
that 3ft solar panel and capacitor combination that will power my house
at Walmart... ;-)

Even if it were 100% efficient a 3ft (square) solar panel will only
pick up something like 800 watts on a clear day in an equatorial desert,
and rather less in other parts of the world and weather conditions.
Needless to say that 100% efficiency is not possible but the kind of
cheap atomically precise engineering that MNT promises should make it
feasible to get as close as possible to it as well as providing means to
improve the energy efficiency of the house - oh yes and perhaps eliminate
the need for Walmart :)

--
C:>WIN | Directable Mirror Arrays
The computer obeys and wins. | A better way to focus the sun
You lose and Bill collects. | licences available see
| http://www.sohara.org/

Thank you very much for the reply!

I thought that the use of nanotubes or nanotechnology enabled an
"increase in surface area". The analogy I remember reading compared a
washcloth to a towel. Because the towel has cloth "hairs", it can
absorb many times the amount of water a washcloth of the same height
and width. In the capacitor example, adding nanotechnology "hairs" to
the capacitor enabled it to provide the performance of a capacitor
geometrically larger.

So if the same theory could be applied to a solar panel, then a 3 foot
square "nano solar panel" could "absorb" many times more energy. I was
wondering if anyone was working doing researching to make that
possible.

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