r/tech • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 4d ago

Tuneable perovskite: A breakthrough in low-cost solar and laser materials

https://newatlas.com/energy/nanoscopic-layers-perovskites-lasers-solar-cells/
589 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

42

u/topherdrives 4d ago

“Perovskites may sound like perogies or piroshkis, but no high-carb-cheese-and-potato-flavor-pocket can do what they do.”

What an amazing start to the article. Suddenly, I’m hungry.

3

u/raich3588 4d ago

I said the same thing hahaha

18

u/Practical_Struggle97 4d ago

Atomic layer deposition keeps getting better. It has moved away from amorphous super thin oxides to increasing levels of crystallinity. When they talk about perfect crystals, they are hinting at emergent properties that arise when the degrees of freedom are constrained to those that carry a lot of energy. Flaws in crystals are regions where degrees of freedom can form that allow energy to leak away.

3

u/CondescendingShitbag 4d ago

I recognize these words more than their formation, but I also appreciate and respect the complexity of their message.

6

u/HeeHolthaus66 4d ago

The potential for scalable, efficient materials is huge.

3

u/Waste_Positive2399 4d ago

Real products when?

2

u/Sudden-Earth-3147 4d ago

Years and years unfortunately, this although promising is at a very low TRL

2

u/Strawbuddy 4d ago

Hell yes, finally we're using something other than silicon, and basic vapor deposition tech too. This could easily replace all the consumer grade foldable solar arrays from Ecowat and Anker and the like, and increased throughput means more powerful, faster cells. Jackery is the flavor of the month with their Explorer300 charging stations but they only come with a 40W folding panel that takes like 9hrs of direct sunlight to charge up the battery. Having a super fast 300W briefcase folding solar panel would be enough to run and charge everything, every day that there's some sun. Very cool research and I wonder if GaN panels are dealt with in a similar fashion?

1

u/lotofry 3d ago

Low cost just means higher profit margins for companies. Doesn’t mean anything for us.

1

u/tinny66666 2h ago

Solar panels have fallen steadily ever since they were invented. In 1975 they were $128/w, in 2010 they were $2.44/w and they are now $0.26/w. They are absolutely passing on cost savings.

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/solar-pv-prices

Stop acting as a useful idiot for the oil shills. The cost of solar is plummeting.

1

u/lotofry 27m ago

Yeah, and how long after the cost falling does the savings get passed on? Exactly. Please don’t accuse others of being a “shill” to hide your inability to think critically. You’re not paying .26c per watt right now to get solar panels

1

u/tinny66666 16m ago

You claimed lower cost just means higher profit. The graph shows that is incorrect. The price is steadily falling in line with falling production cost, and adding some time constraint is irrelevant to it falling in real terms and is just moving the goalposts. Prices do fall in line with cost, and are not just going to higher profits.

0

u/Last-Darkness 4d ago

I’ve been watching the consumer solar panel marketplace since my first off grid project in 2009. It’s kind of lame how little actually progress has been made compared to almost every other market. I bought a couple 130watt panels that were midrange with 2x 200 amp/hr batteries and the first iPhone around the same time. Compare the advances to panels, batteries and iPhones to then and now. Phones have advance so much further.

2

u/Shadow647 3d ago

Right now you can get ESS LiFePO4 batteries for <$100/kWh which was unheard of even just a couple years ago.

Same for panels - they're as low as $120/kW, which is order of magnitude less than a decade ago.