Caltech, BP Team For Nano Solar Cell

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Can the teaming up of BP plc and Caltech change the world?


Last week, the prestigious Pasadena tech powerhouse and the London-based oil giant announced a partnership to develop a radical solar cell using nanotechnology.


Existing solar cells use various types of silicon ranging from paper-thin wafers to films of the material to coax electric charges out of sunlight.


The problem is, even the most sophisticated cells operate at 30 percent efficiency and those are in research labs and very costly to fabricate while those that are commercially viable operate around 15 percent. That means the relative cost of the electricity they produce is higher than conventional sources, such as oil and gas.


However, BP, which has pledged to give Caltech $5 million over five years, is betting that creating nano cylinders of silicon, perhaps 100 times smaller than a human hair, could lead to major breakthroughs that would allow the production of vast arrays of solar cells producing more electricity at lower costs.


“Nanotechnology can offer new and unique ways to make solar-cell materials that are cheaper,” said Nate Lewis, a Caltech chemistry professor who will co-direct the program.


Solar energy proponents see a future in which efficient, commercially viable solar cells ultimately replace oil, gas and coal as primary sources of energy both by the direct production of electricity and by powering the conversion of water into hydrogen fuel.


Of course, without breakthroughs like the one hoped for at Caltech, that will never happen.

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