12 Year Old Boy Invents New Type of Solar Cell
Now here’s a story that makes me feel profoundly unaccomplished: a 12 year old boy in Beaverton, Oregon recently developed a new type of 3D solar cell that makes other solar cells look inefficient by comparison.
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William Yuan’s 3D cell can absorb both visible and UV light. According to his calculations, solar panels equipped with his 3D cells could provide 500 times more light absorption than current commercial solar cells and nine times more light than existing 3D solar cells.
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Yuan received a well-deserved $25,000 scholarship for his research. The next step? Getting his invention to market. Of course, the viability of his solar cells will ultimately depend on their cost efficiency—but Yuan has his whole life ahead of him to work on that.
You can check out the original press release here.
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@Kirk: Did you read the article? It’s nice that you fellows at Georgia Tech invented some 3D solar cells and it is cutting-edge. The article doesn’t say this kid invented 3D solar cells, it says he invented “a new type of 3D solar cell” and that it absorbs “nine times more light than existing 3D solar cells”. The linked article also refers to “cutting-edge” 3D solar cells.
So, the implication is that if Georgia Tech is making cutting-edge 3D solar cells, this kid is doing 9 times better than you. Maybe you can contribute to his groundbreaking work.
Of course, as an engineer I’m always wary of claims in the press that sensationalize things like this, and an experienced engineer might look at what he’s done and find it’s useless. That’s always a possibility. But to start out with that assumption is unfounded.
All we need now is a more efficient combustion engine… I won’t hold my breath.
Edward, I hope you’re kidding with the 40% times 500 comment. Good job coming up with 40×500=20,000… but that’s not how it works.
His cells provide 500 times the light absorbtion, not 500x the efficiency.
If you read the press release, it says they are DOUBLE (meaning 2x) the conversion efficiency of previous models.
Well lets hope it doesn’t take his lifetime to develop this technology.
Hopefully it doesn’t take too long to figure out the cost efficiency.
He needs to nail that shit down asap. Amidst the economic meltdowns and energy crises, things like this make me optimistic.
Kirk,
Thanks for your clarification on the development of the 3d solar cell technology. I’m so happy to see that public money goes to the development of such technology, and then it is turned around the locked down thru patents and held by private corporation(s) in effort to make a profit, instead of shared freely with all in the interested of humanity and energy independence.
Yeah. Thanks a lot.
Hey…idiots who are pooh-poohing about efficiency ect…
How about you re-res think before you open your mouths….The article does not say “500 times more efficiency”…it says “500 times more light absorption”…
They are different things! They are interconnected so to speak, but they are NOT THE SAME THING.
Efficiency refers to how well the cell does at converting the sunlight into electricity, light absorption means just that; how much light it absorbs overall.
Now, I’m no scientist (I’m a heroin addicted high school dropout)…but it makes sense to me that a “3-d” cell would absorb much more than a “2-d” cell based on more “surface area” ect…
True the “500 times” factor may be off, it’s hard to say…especially since “light absorption” isn’t as concretely defined as efficiency…but it’s certainly PLAUSIBLE.
Seriously guys…think before you open your mouth, and you won’t find yourself extracting your foot from it so often…
In a time when alot of innercity kids are carrying guns to school and getting mixed up with gangs,drugs and really messing up there lives its refreshing to see a kid so young so interested in something that makes no sense to most of the world. I mean i have heard of solar power but how it works is beyond me. Good Job Kid. I guess you’ll have a free ride at M.I.T and you probably deserve it.
This is really great. All the statistics show that american kids are behind the 8 ball when it comes to science. I guess that’s not true in Oregon.
But i can see Russia!