Okayama Solar Absorbers Use “Green Ferrite” to Generate Super-Cheap Electricity from Heat

September 20th, 2011 by Charis Michelsen

Okayama Graduate School of Science and Technology is one of many developing solar cells and batteries, but its research team, led by one Professor Naoshi Ikeda, has a unique approach. Instead of silicon, currently the standard component in solar cells, the Okayama team is using an iron oxide compound it calls “green ferrite,” or GF. Professor Ikeda has gone so far as to claim his product will produce 100x the amount of energy as a traditional silicon solar cell.

Part of the increase in energy production would come from the infra-red spectrum — solar cells do not currently convert heat into electricity, but apparently the green ferrite has that capability. Professor Ikeda speculates that any area collecting waste heat (the ceiling of your kitchen, for example) could serve as a home for a GF solar cell.

The team’s goal is to create a battery capable of generating 1KW of energy for 1/1000th of the cost of a traditional silicon solar cell, which comes out to about 1000 yen ($12 American) per GF cell. The GF cells, which currently use green ferrite in a powdered form, should also allow for some flexibility in solar panel shape, which means they could be wrapped around things like chimneys or telephone poles.

As the early tests have been fairly successful, the Okayama team is hoping for a usable product by 2013.

Source | Picture: MSN Sankei

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Tags: cheap solar cells, efficient solar cells, GF, green ferrite, iron oxide, Japan, new technology, Okayama, Okayama University, quickies, silicon, silicon-based solar cell, solar battery, solar technology

About the Author

Charis Michelsen spent 7 years living in Germany and Japan, studying both languages extensively, doing translation and education with companies like Bosch, Nissan, Fuji Heavy, and others. Charis has a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and currently lives in Chicago, Illinois. She also believes that Janeway was the best Star Trek Captain.

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Anonymous

Could be good for automotive waste heat recovery.
Breath on the Wind

Solar PV panels are around 10 to 20% efficient while solar thermal panels are around 60 to 80% efficient. Materials that capture heat AND turn it into electricity have been made and they are generally under the study of thermoelectrics or thermovoltaics. How the cost of this material compared to existing technology will have to be proven. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Thermoelectric-Materials-Promice-Higher-Energy-Efficiency-71487.shtml Recent investigations point to a form of Silcone as an economic material that might be used.

To capture heat and store it indefinitely in chemical bonds for later release as heat we could use the thermal battery described here: http://cleantechnica.com/2011/07/29/21st-century-stable-thermal-energy-storage/
Anonymous

“Professor Ikeda has gone so far as to claim his product will produce 100x the amount of energy as a traditional silicon solar cell.”

Snake oil. Current solar cells have efficiencies of more than 10%. And it’s not possible to go above 100%.
- Anonymous
  
  Current solar cells do not use all available wavelengths. If they have a device/technology which can harvest energy from wavelengths outside the usable range of PV cells then the 10%/100% metrics may not be comparable.
  
  Think about how it might be possible to gather energy directly from sunlight during the day and then from the heat given off by buildings/pavement throughout the night. The hours of production increase as the sources widen.
  
  That said, best we pay attention to “hoping for a usable product by 2013″.
- 8popcorn
  
  100% more ie x 2 so the final efficiency could be not 10% but 20%. Not only possible but only remarkable if the cost factors are in place.
  - Anonymous
    
    100% more (i.e. 2x as much) << 100x as much.
    - Breath on the Wind
      
      Yup, I have to agree with you. If this is not a mistake in printing or quoting, it is misleading at the least and a scam at worst. Sadly, the boom in tech will naturally bring with it a new kind of “gold rush” with all the classic attempts at “get rich quick” schemes.
- Anonymous
  
  Not sure if i will get a reply as your comment is 3 days old.
  
  When we calculate solar panel efficiency, say 10%, does this number mean that we only capture 10% of specific wavelength? Or all wavelengths? Or of all wavelengths AND heat?
  - jw
    
    SHUD UP
Mekennedy1313

how about a link to what “green ferrite” is?
Anonymous

“create a battery”

Is ‘battery’ a poor word choice?

—

If this pans out it’s game changing. But until I see a working prototype which can be manufactured at a good price….

The amount of energy we waste through discarded heat is tremendous. If they can make this work we could build PHEVs with much smaller fuel engines. Currently only about 20% of the energy in gas gets turned into useful mechanical movement, the rest cast off as heat. If we could capture most of that heat then a range extender engine could be tiny. Less range-killing weight, both engine and fuel.

Or we could skip the engine and just burn some fuel for heat when we need to drive further than the batteries will carry us.

All the waste heat coming from our refrigerators, air conditioners, clothes dryers, dishwashers, kitchen ranges – capture it and feed it back into the grid.

And industrial waste heat, that’s an enormous resource we could tap.

I hope these guys aren’t just blowing smoke.

Man, I could stick some of this stuff along side my wood stove and charge my batteries with firewood…