Israeli nanotech provides green electricity

Israeli nanotech provides green electricity

...

But Breen aims to change that with little nano-sized cells, coated with an organic dye engineered to react when hit by sunlight to produce energy more efficiently, effectively, and cheaply, than current solar systems. The system includes cells consisting of titanium oxide layers coated with the organic dye and connected to a battery.

The key is in the nano-sized chunks of titanium oxide. "At sizes as small as 10 nanometers, the laws of physics take some interesting turns," says Breen. "We have discovered that when light hits titanium oxide particles of this size coated with our dye, a great deal of energy is produced. It's like photosynthesis. Just as a plant produces nourishment for itself when exposed to sunlight, our cells produce energy, converted to electricity."

The energy produced by the reaction is shunted into a charge controller, and then transferred to a battery, where it is stored. Orionsolar's system, he says, is more efficient, since the dye technology can be used even under low lighting situations, guaranteeing a greater power yield as it continues to gather energy even during the early morning or late afternoon hours. And Orionsolar's dye cell system produces power much more cheaply; module production costs are about half that of silicon photovoltaics, while the cost to put up a manufacturing line is a small fraction of those of silicon based photovoltaic systems, he adds.

...

BIU's Prof. Arie Zaban, head of the university's Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, invented new ways to more efficiently link together the nano-sized cells to create a large single energy gathering cell, thus increasing the efficiency of the collection system. His discoveries, originally found to work with glass substrates, work with flexible plastic substrates, as well. That innovation, combined with work by Orionsolar's founder Dr. Jonathan Goldstein on the dye cell technology, led Orionsolar to the development of its unique solar systems.

...