All About Solar | Green Energy News

August 28, 2005 – Vol.10 No.23

All ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news...

According to Solaris Nanosciences the only drawback to dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) is that they degrade in power output over time thus have limited operating lifetimes. The culprit is the sensitizer dye itself.

But, the company says that if the dye were replaceable the solar cells could have a longer life than traditional silicon solar cells.

So, they’ve done just that, developed the first rechargeable solar cell. The company says dye from a DSSC solar system could be drained and replenished in 30 minutes or less by a trained technician. In the process solar systems would remain in place and dye would be drained, the cells dried and new dye pumped in.

The refuelable cells could also be upgraded with state-of-the-art dyes when the cells are recharged.

The company believes it could reduce residential solar system costs to an average of $3000 which could be recovered in 5 years or so. DSSC cells are simple to make thus the manufacturing costs of DSSCs are less than traditional silicon solar cells.

With its first demonstration DSSC (or Graetzel ) cell now being tested the company says it is planning to build a large scale prototype for testing at the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Colorado. Visit Solaris Nanosciences at http://www.solarisnano.com/