Future Solar Panels Will Generate Energy From Raindrops

[Dexter]

http://sciencenewsjournal.com/future-solar-panels-will-generate-energy-raindrops/

A new solar cell prototype developed by a team of scientists in Qingdao, China may change the way we use solar panels in the not so distant future. Solar panel technology has changed the way many people bring energy into their homes, but this type of technology has always posed one concern: panels cannot output optimal power without ideal weather conditions. When you have rainy days or a lot of cloud cover, there is only so much energy that panels can store for later use. While engineers and material scientists have been able to make their efficiency far better over the years, with solar panels that store decent amounts of energy to be used when sun is not readily available, there has never quite been a development like the one discovered this year.

Chinese scientists are now able to create electricity with the assistance of raindrops. This is thanks to a thin layer of graphene they use to coat their solar cells during testing. Graphene is known for its conductivity, among many other benefits. All it takes is a mere one-atom thick graphene layer for an excessive amount of electrons to move as they wish across the surface. In situations where water is present, graphene binds its electrons with positively charged ions. Some of you may know this process to be called as the Lewis acid-base interaction.

[Joe Wooten]

Pie in the sky.

The graphene will degrade rather quickly with the electron exchange, and a thicker coat will reduce PV efficiency. Replacing the coating will entail more maintenance costs, both of which which reduces the already very poor ROI on PV panels. Besides, NO PV panel in existence stores solar energy for later conversion. NONE. The electricity is generated immediately upon light falling on the panel. No light, no power, reduced light, reduced power.

The real world physics always trumps the pie-in-the sky green dreams.

[Dexter]

Pie in the sky.

The graphene will degrade rather quickly with the electron exchange, and a thicker coat will reduce PV efficiency. Replacing the coating will entail more maintenance costs, both of which which reduces the already very poor ROI on PV panels. Besides, NO PV panel in existence stores solar energy for later conversion. NONE. The electricity is generated immediately upon light falling on the panel. No light, no power, reduced light, reduced power.

The real world physics always trumps the pie-in-the sky green dreams.

You should inform those scientists that you've dismantled their pie-in-the-sky nonsense. They clearly haven't thought this through. 

[Joe Wooten]

Those researchers know it. They just are not putting it in their press releases in hopes of getting a few more suckers investors/government to put in some more money. I have seen this time and time again over my 37 year career as an engineer.