Toshiba solar-panels being installed at an evacuation center in Miyagi (via Toshiba)
Minamisoma City (located in the Fukushima Prefecture) in Japan has recently signed on with Toshiba to create the largest solar-park in the country. The decision was made as the country is still reeling from the devastation caused by last year’s tsunami and catastrophic meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor. In fact, Minamisoma has joined with sister-city Namie in an effort to scrub the nation’s plans of building a new reactor in a nearby area. The announcement of the deal comes as no surprise as Toshiba was one of the first companies to provide relief efforts in the disaster areas by providing food/water, procuring evacuation centers, providing transportation as well as installing solar-powered photovoltaic systems to power facilities and temporary housing.
It is unclear as to whether or not the Fukushima disaster has raised concerns over the validity of using nuclear power; however other municipalities such as Hokkaido and Kyushu are looking to acquire large solar-parks as a supplement over their nuclear, hydro-electric and geo-thermal facilities. Other cities, such as Kyoto and Gunma, have recently brought two super-solar facilities (from SB Energy) online at the beginning of July of this year (2012). People could argue all day over the advantages and disadvantages over both solar and nuclear power, such as cost benefits, power throughput/generation and environmental impact, but the fact of the matter is solar-power has been making significant technology advances over the last decade that may give nuclear power a run for its money (no pun intended).
UCLA PSC (Polymer Solar Cell) (via UCLA)
One of the problems associated with photovoltaic solar technology is that it is not cost effective over other generation forms (nuclear, hydro, wind, natural gas and fossil-fuels), mostly due to panel efficiency. To an extent that’s true, as solar-technology was being advanced on during the early 70’s by the oil crisis but soon fizzled out (after the crisis was over) and really hasn’t been touched upon during the 80’s and even then 90’s. The millennium has seen considerable strides in its advancement with the refinement of nano-technology, silicon and polymers. Various companies and institutions have taken to the idea of advancing solar-energy and have found ways of making their designs both more efficient as well as cost effective with designs made from thin-films deposited onto silicon substrates to the use of nanocrystals to construct 3D solar-cells (Solar3D).
The University of California (at Los Angeles) has recently joined that bandwagon with their recent design of a polymer solar cell that is transparent and can be incorporated into building windows or even mobile device screens to generate power. The team of researchers, led by Professor Yang Yang (Materials Science and Engineering), designed the PSC using a photo-active flexible polymer that converts infra-red light into electricity. Their design features a transparent electrode, situated on top of the polymer substrate that allows the cell to absorb more infra-red light which makes the cell more efficient at light gathering over traditional photovoltaic cells. The team designed the transparent electrode by using a mixture of silver nano-wire and titanium dioxide nano-particles placed on top of the cell and then filled in the resulting micro-gaps with indium tin-oxide. Professor Yang states that the cells could be ‘manufactured economically using solution processing’ (think ink-jet printing) much in the same fashion as newspaper printing. Implementing this design into massive solar-farms being scrutinized by outlying Japanese cities could give the nation a solar-powered empire that rivals that of Germany (currently the leader in solar-power usage).
Cabe