Future Tech
Some innovations are well past the drawing board stage, but not quite ready to roll into full production. These are some that should be making the news within the coming year.
Shrink Nanotechnologies, Inc., Carlsbad, California produces a shrinkable plastic film. “One for this film is building PV solar cells, but not the type that are normally envisioned. Our technology involves solar concentrators,” Mark Baum, ceo says.
Ms. Sayantani Ghosh, PhD, assistant professor of Physics at UC Merced and consultant to Shrink Nanotechnologies explains that this technology is a completely unique process.
“In a solar cell you take sunlight, and convert it into electricity,” she says. “What we are doing is taking sunlight and converting it into light of a different colour. This different coloured light then falls onto existing silicon PV. The colour of the light is set to the PV’s preferred colour. It is like straining the sunlight into colours that will enhance the efficiency of the silicon.”
“Think about a window. Instead of glass, the surface of the pane would be a very think solar concentrator between two layers of glass. The light of day will hit that solar concentrator. By using crystalline silicon around the edges of the pane, that silicon would absorb the photons coming off the quantum dots in the film. This would be absorbed into the system and ultimately be turned into electricity that could be used. This same technology can apply to home siding and roof shingles. It’s all about functionalising the surfaces of the buildings that people live and work in,” Baum says.
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