An energy miracle? But we already have it!

Here, the discussion is on perovskite solar cells; a technology that promises to be cheaper than that based on silicon. Perovskites are a large class of materials; those being studied as solar cell materials have several advantages, including the fact that they can be manufactured in the form of thin films, don’t need to be so extremely pure as silicon, have a band gap close to the theoretical optimum.

That, however, doesn’t necessarily make perovskites a “breakthrough” in the field. Even assuming that perovskite cells could reach an efficiency high enough to be marketable, the problem is that, at present, the cost of the cells is only about 30% of the total cost of a solar plant. Even if perovskite cells were to cost half as much in comparison to silicon ones, that would be no improvement unless their efficiency were to match or exceed that of silicon. Otherwise, the whole plant would probably cost more because it would have to occupy more space.

In practice, to have a breakthrough in solar power, we would need a technology which is 1) significantly cheaper than silicon, 2) much more efficient, 3) that uses no rare and non-renewable elements (that rules out, in the long run, cells that use tellurium or gallium). That’s a tall order, especially considering that we are bumping into the physical limits of single-junction cells; which cannot have efficiencies higher than a little more than 30%. Silicon, because of some quirks of the way the universe works, happens to be placed almost in an optimal position in terms of band-gap and, at the same time, to be a widely available element in the earth’s crust. So, it is, in many respects, an optimal choice for solar cells, and already not so far away from its theoretical limits. I think that we’ll stay with silicon for a long, long time. Surely we will improve the technology, but don’t expect miracles. That silicon works so well is already a miracle!

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Further notes:

1. Here, in Florence, a colleague of mine has built a nice solar plant that uses multi-junction GaAs cells and concentrating mirrors, attaining, I think, around 50% efficiency. I saw it: it is a wonder of technology, full of gears, motors, optics, sensors, computers, and things. But I didn’t dare to ask him how much it would cost to buy one for the roof of my house!

2. True breakthroughs may occur “downstream” with respect to energy production; for instance with batteries and the diffusion of a new generation of electric vehicles. There is no thermodynamic limit to the number of times that a battery can be recharged without degrading.

3. “heavy-duty trucks, locomotives, and ships run on diesel fuel” in the article below is, in part, a canard. Here in Europe, locomotives already run on electricity. Trucks can run on electricity, too, (http://mondoelettrico.blogspot.it/2014/08/ehighway-il-filocarro-elettrico.html). For ships, the problem is not so much how to push them on, there are ways. It is another one, much more difficult (see e.g. https://blogdredd.blogspot.it/2015/08/why-sea-level-rise-may-be-greatest.html). And the only way to solve that problem is to rush into renewable energy as fast as possible.

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Van Noorden, R. September 24, 2014. Cheap solar cells tempt businesses. Nature #513 470-471.

There is another potential snag: perovskites contain a small amount of toxic lead, in a form that would be soluble in any water leaching through the cells’ protection. Although Snaith and others have made films with tin instead, the efficiency of these cells is only just above 6%.