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Title: This solar panel printer can make 33 feet of solar cells per minute
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URL Source: http://grist.org/list/this-solar-pa ... eet-of-solar-cells-per-minute/
Published: May 23, 2013
Author: Sarah Laskow
Post Date: 2013-05-23 14:51:50 by wudidiz
Keywords: None
Views: 210
Comments: 5
University of Melbourne Whatever oil and gas true believers want to think, the world is doing this solar power thing. It’s getting cheaper and cheaper to make solar panels, and the panels are getting more and more effective. For example: A team in Australia just built a gigantic printer that spits out solar cells at a rate, Gizmodo reports, of about 33 feet every minute. It’s not even particularly complicated technology, according to the researchers. Gizmodo writes: [The printer system] utilizes only existing printer technology to embed polymer solar cells (also known as organic or plastic solar cells) in thin sheets of plastic or steel at a rate of ten meters per minute. “We’re using the same techniques that you would use if you were screen printing an image on to a T- Shirt,” project coordinator and University of Melbourne researcher Dr David Jones said in a press release. This particular type of cell isn’t the most efficient, but it’s the type that lends itself to uses where you need a little flexibility — solar windows, bags, or tents, for instances. And now it’s also the easiest type to make. You could probably even print a solar-powered T-shirt that said “Eat it, oil.” Sources: This solar panel printer can make 33 feet of solar cells per minute This Printer Spits Out 10 Meters of Solar Panel Every Minute, Gizmodo This Printer Spits Out 10 Meters of Solar Panel Every Minute Poster Comment: 4um post: Solar Panels as Inexpensive as Paint? posted 9 days ago by Tatarewicz This solar panel printer can make 33 feet of solar cells per minute
By Sarah Laskow 
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#1. To: wudidiz (#0)
This is big news. Until now, solar panels were so expensive that people could hardly afford them, especially in view of the fact that the high price would completely drown any savings on electricity for maybe the first ten or twelve years. Cheap panels, even if not the most efficient converters, change all that. Lots of people might be able to afford to completely cover their roofs with this stuff and make a serious dent in their utility bills.
There could be one of these in every small city for very low cost public use for everyone but then the power companies would be out of business and some manufacturer would get a heart attack or die in a small plane accident and one of the megacorporations would buy the patent and that would be the last we heard of it except for the occasional story of solar power users on antidepressants shooting up a school or bombing an airport...
#3. To: wudidiz (#2)
That's been the MO in the past. Every time a solar company comes up with a breakthrough in efficiency or cost Big Oil buys them out and they disappear. Same with battery technology. As long as solar panels don't surpass the efficiency of gasoline internal combustion engines (13%) by more than a couple of percentage points, or the cost of panels doesn't drop below $4.00/Watt, Big Oil ignores them. The government's involvement in Solyndra and Fisker Motors wasn't about promoting AltE or EVs, but rather to drive a stake through its heart. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Try to keep track of this company if you want, but most likely they'll vanish like a fart in the wind.
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#2. To: Shoonra (#1)
A$200,000
Replies to Comment # 2. ...one of the megacorporations would buy the patent and that would be the last we heard of it...
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