Technology Corner (or the Article Formerly Known as the Sound of One Hand Clapping)

Always opinionated; always controversial; and always topical, he’s done it again. Casting off the shackles of our traditionalist administrators I’m putting another brave foot forward.

Will this be another spoken-of-in-hush-tones taboo topic? Only time will tell…

Sliver cells; the smallest commercially available solar cells in the world. They use less silicone and less space, produce more electricity from the same area and are cheaper. Potential to revolutionise the world of solar energy? Who knows.

According to Professor Andrew Blakers, director of the ANU Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems, “Sliver Cell technology needs the equivalent of two silicon wafers to convert sunlight to 140 watts of power. By comparison, a conventional solar panel needs about 60 silicon wafers to achieve this performance.”

They can also be made thin and flexible enough to be woven into fabric. This means your t-shirt could charge your phone and i-pod while you’re walking down the street or laying on the beach!

They are translucent, so they could potentially be placed over the entire surface of a skyscraper entirely covered with glass.

And what’s more, they have the potential to cost about 1 quarter of conventional cells.

I think these things are cool.

Check out the 7 minute video segment available on

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1865651.htm

And there’s also some info in wikipedia:

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Sliver_Solar_Cells