The last one you talked about was the subject of a paper I wrote! The chemical in question is 2,4-norbornadiene and the alternate form is called quadricyclane! It's fascinating
At the efficiencies demonstrated in the video, what quantity of fuel would be needed to absorb all the summer solar energy, and later provide winter heat, for a 2 bedroomed Swedish house?
It's a win-win, the water helps to cool down the panels, and the panels reduce the amount of vapor, I wonder if those shade balls can be covered with this solar fabric.
the problem is the efficiency of solar panels, solar panels are dense black things and most of the solar energy falling on them will just be conducted to the water below so they wouldn't really reduce evaporation like the shade balls but the solar fabric idea for the shade balls sounds great , the only problem I foresee with that is the solar fabric ones getting buried under the other ones and where the power would go but it could probably be dealt with pretty easily
@Paul howitt What plastic toxins? The usual problem with plastic is that it DOES NOT degrade in nature. I was just about to post that if they put floating solar panels on it someone would start complaining about how solar panels contain toxic chemicals, just like they always do when the issue of recycling them comes up...
@@manjensen1710 I see three obvious issues with that: 1. Covering each ball with that fabric, combined with cost of the fabric, is a lot of work and therefore expensive. Painting them with that solar paint invented few years back would be easier, faster and probably cheaper. But even then you would have the next two issues. 2. Those balls keep moving with wind and changes in water level, which rubs them together and risks damaging the fabric or scraping off the paint. Not only would that degrade the system quickly and lower its output, but we probably don't want scraps of either in the drinking water. 3. Even if you solve the above, how the heck would you gather the power each of those tiny panels collects? A million cables? Put a battery in each and manually collect them to drain it? Simply too much work for too little gain. A floting raft of panels seems like a better idea, but even it has a major problem: A reservoir is going to be drained and refilled repeatedly and possibly quite often. The raft is meant to survive minor waves, the major changes could harm it, or at least lying on the dry bottom would lose the cooling benefits. The fabric could be a solution for both issues: stretch long strips of it over the reservoir like sun shades, that way the reservoir gets less heat, the evaporating water could get caught on the fabric and flow back into reservoir, and the fabric panels are also cooled a little. Well, I think it might work, I might be wrong. And wouldn't hundreds of yards long solar fabrics also cost way more than a bunch of smaller and easier to manufacture panels? I hope someone who actually knows more about that tech hears of the idea and at least does the math.
@@AnalystPrime You could just have a long, thin lattice of interconnected solar panels, like a big plastic mesh sheet. When I say thin, I'm talking like perhaps an inch in diameter for the strands. This would allow them to be flexible, and let water pass through and over it. While heat from the solar panels would be conducted to the water, the amount of light they block would more than compensate for it.
not a whole lot of mining, since silicon is basically sand, but then the silicon needs to be pulled in one single crystal before being cut into thin layers, and this is a very interresting process
@@leumgui photovoltaic cells require doping to work. They aren't pure silicate. Reason being is that the electrons while easily knocked free have to have somewhere to go. Typically the cells are doped with rare earth minerals. It's the process of mining, processing and integrating those materials into manufacture that is detrimental to the environment. It's also why solar cells are toxic if discarded improperly... which is to say discarded period, as there currently is no safe recycling or disposal methods for the technology. Generally speaking solar cells while highly efficient aren't the best way to produce energy if you're looking for a source that is renewable. It's one of the reasons why sterling engines are being looked at again.
@@Soletestament This is incorrect. 95% of a panel can be recycled. Here in Australia, a company called Reclaim PV is doing it. That said, you may be right about the full life-cycle externalities compared to stirling engines and concentrated solar-thermal (or other techs), but it's a difficult thing to run reliable numbers on, so I don't know for sure.
As the technology improves, and it has been doing so, and will continue to do so, the recycling will improve, as well. After all, this video *is* talking about *the future* of solar power.
@@Soletestament however, the doping is something like a gramme per square metre. Not a huge part of the total construction, esp if you take it over 10-20 years.
Then they could just build dams over the water anywhere there is a water current. So pretty much they could get a thousand percent our needs just by flowing rivers in this country. Hydro is over a century old. At thirty percent capacity. and!!! These motor generators could be upgraded to ten times the efficiency. It's all a sham. Period.
Oh, last month halbach array motors, which are a decade old....was finally in the news mainstream. All the wind turbines needs the motors to be replaced for three times the output. Every one in the country. Right now. Outdated. Already spent the money to erect them. The cost to upgrade for three times the monetary output, a fraction. Welcome to the future, energy is nothing to have and buy. Fuel and power and cost to manufacture in the next decade will bottom out. Every manufacturing facility will now pay a fraction energy costs. And soon, will eliminate labor. I.e. people
I hadn't even heard of solar fabrics. That's extraordinary. Imagine having solar-power canopies and tents? Imagine having a jacket that allows you to charge your smart phone right in your pocket. I'd wondered if solar technology could be applied to windows. I had no idea it was an actual possibility now. Look at all these massive corporate structures with windows? With the right workings, they could basically become solar towers.
Will cost a fortune to make and be a fad like all the other tech clothing over the decades. Plus how are you going to wash it in a machine? What happens it if shorts and electrocutes you? Wont ever happen in mainstream. Just another tree hugging idea for the liberal hipster minority.
I think the cost and washing are will be solved soon, the real problem is efficiency. We've seen so many "breakthroughs" but the current efficiency wouldn't be enough to light a 0.5W bulb, let alone charging your phone at 5W or 18W.
@@anarchyantz1564 The first computers took up space in entire rooms. Now we have technology ten times more powerful than that (if not more) that fits in our pocket. Technology is always improving. It could happen.
Hello Hank! I’ll be starting a PhD in Electrical Engineering at ASU in August focusing on PV. Great explanations all around! I would love to work with SciShow to talk more on solar and show off some amazing labs in Tempe. I’ve been following your content since high school and would love to help further any kind of education.
electrical solar panels arent great, oil based ones are best, mirrors reflecting desert sunlight onto pipes filled with oil that then create pressure /energy to turn a turbine ,also cheaper to make and maintain
We have a lake in France where Floatovoltaics have been installed last fall. It works fine. Another smaller lake is set to be floatovoltaic'd in july this year. As artificial lakes used mainly for irrigation, they're basically 'dead' surfaces: nobody's fighting over that. And the water cools the panels, so yay. We need more, that's just a few drops in the ocean for now. I hadn't heard about solar windows with transparent cells, but I think I've read something about curved cells to just stick around the poles of wind turbines, along with the agrivoltaics. Sounds like a lot of crops could have those, perched several feet above ground (so farmers can still drive their engines underneath?). Solar fabrics sound outlandish, but why the heck not. Especially on canopies sitting all day in the sun. Solar thermal fuels look like the start of something that works but would remain marginally used, like geothermal is now. I've bought a house this year, with standard PV panels on the roof, and facing East : it gets sunlight mostly in the morning (not too hot) + when the weather gets stormy in summer, it's usually in the afternoon when panels are not facing the sun anymore (not a big loss). Sold back to the grid, the production offsets pretty much my entire annual power bill. When selling at lower prices in the future becomes less attractive, I'm adding batteries so I can use my own power directly, and only sell the surplus.
I'm looking forward to it, will be nice to eventualy get rid of fossile fuels thanks to the amazing people who are working on it and people like the guys on SciShow who help to spread the news and information about it.
My husband and I both watched this today - and we had a question regarding agrovolltaics: does this arrangement affect crop growth? It would seem a poor trade if solar panel efficiency went up 5% while crop growth fell by a large amount. Thank you for all the wonderful work you do. We have become huge fans during quarantine, and plan to keep up with you.
One thing you didn't mention about floatovoltaics: they reduce evaporation from the body of water beneath them, making them potentially valuable on reservoirs in areas where water shortages are common. Fixed solar panels can also be used over waterways like canals to produce the same effect on evaporation. India has been doing this for over a decade. Also, I'm pretty sure I read something about solar cells which produce hydrocarbons rather than electricity.
@@dan_ You won't be putting these over wheat fields, but instead more shrub and vine crops that usually need to be harvested by hand anyway (peas, berries, coffee, chili peppers, cocoa etc.).
Lots of crops can deal with a bit if shade quite happily, especially during the hottest part of summer. That's when we constantly deal with sunburnt tomatoes and such here in our home gardens. The shade would be very helpful. We have even put mesh material over our potted tomatoes before, and it really helped to prevent the sunburns. I suspect this would work the same way.
Correction: The statement "It always takes energy for molecules to form chemical bonds with each other" is incorrect. Generally speaking, when chemical bonds are formed the molecules are in a more stable / lower energy state whereas when bonds are broken they are entering a less stable / higher energy state. This is not always the case and in the example shown the molecule is absorbing energy and changing to a higher energy state without forming or breaking bonds. This should not be confused with Endothermic vs Exothermic reactions as the difference can be caused by the number of bonds being formed / broken in the reaction.
A thermoacoustic Stirling engine loves heat and uses sound waves to generate electricity. No moving parts, last forever, made from basic materials and uses solar collectors like magnifying glasses for “fuel.” Los Alamos developed the concept 25 years ago.
i love the idea of storing sunlight energy for decades. so awesome the deserts are being eyed for building solar cell infrastructures in combination with plants which will cool the deserts for habitability, thus terraforming them to sustain more planetary life. i am a big advocate for embedding our windows and clothes with power-producing technology.
If they could be adapted to grow plants under the photovoltaics, that would help cool the temperatures of the solar cells, as well as help turn the Sahara (a few kilometers/miles at a time, perhaps) back into a temperate zone. Would be a helluva terraforming job, but could certainly be a plus for those that live nearby!
All of these are great ideas, I'm particularly fond of the solar windows. For years I've thought cars should have small solar panels as standard equipment so they can circulate air while parked, avoiding the ever-unpleasant 'autogreenhouse'.
3% efficiency just by adding crops is actually a really big deal. That land can serve 2 purposes and at least one of those will benefit from the other. I'm also going to look into the solar thermal fuel - sounds pretty interesting.
2d materials like graphene and graphene-Flouride are also being used in some preliminary testing for transparent solar cells, although their dream is a spray on style coating for regular windows. This type of tinted window solar cell could help MASSIVELY in preemptively building some of the infrastructure like wiring and batteries into existing structures in preparation for technology like that, making those future techs far more attractive to investors and governments alike to help fund that kind of research since it will be much more easily applied to the market if there is already a “base market” so to speak. Very nice to hear.
one-axis tracker where also common. Less expensive, less complicated, less prone to failure and only a bit less efficient then 2-Axis tracker. BUT for both of them there is hardly a business case any more: the + in efficiency is not as big as the + in cost :/
@@Krusesensei That is variable depending on your geographical location, as mentioned in the video. Plus (and also in response to the original comment), as the technology matures, the reliability and efficiency improves. Thus expanding the geographical range where it becomes profitable.
@@Temp0raryName the trackers are mostly just framework and motors, neither are a maturing technology. Both reliability and efficiency are now dependent on the money one wants to invest.
@@garrett6064 With spans of decades, covering ones where new materials and new efficiencies in making them can be discovered and developed, even framework can improve. Reducing weight, improving durability and lowering cost, for example. Even shaving off a few percent (as the video says) can make a big saving long term. Likewise motors can be optimised for this specific task. And there is always room for development, such as with self-repairing materials. Then, of course, there are the unexpected developments which can be game changers. Plants have been doing these feats for millions of years, with great efficiency. As we learn how to emulate their techniques we will be able to grow motors which do not have anywhere near the current costs. Finally, if you always keep an eye on the effect on the bottom line, you can cherry pick the emerging technologies and materials which give you the cost savings. Even with 'mature' technologies.
So here the thing (I know because I'm an inorganic materials chemist who works directly on this problem). Silicon (even doped) is hardly the most efficient material to use for solar power. It's band gap is 1.1eV, which while isn't bad isn't the ideal 1.4eV (the theoretical best band gap for photovoltaics, which I will say only predicts a max of 32% efficiency). I'm working on a class of chemicals called perovskites, which can get much closer to the magic 1.4eV (I think the best we've gotten so far is 1.52eV) that could one day replace traditional solar panels. Unfortunately a lot of perovskites are subject to degradation in ambient conditions. That's where my research comes in. I'm trying to find perovskite-like compounds that are stable in all sorts of environments while still maintaining a better-than-silicon ban gap.
Thermal fuel sounds like a good idea. They have been working on this with many variations. This idea almost sounds like those hot packs you squeeze the device to activate it.
Thermal batteries sound great. Because they can store the energy for so long, we can absorb the energy during the summer and use it in the winter. Seems like it'd be effective year round.
I have been mulling over a poly dimensional collector for years now. One idea is 'active insulation'. A solar panel likes to be cool so there is excess heat to compress and circulate a gas or gasses, or fluids. The panel is simply using the gasses to cool the panel, but the expanded gasses are also stored energy. Expanded gasses are used to make cold, or actually absorb heat, in a refrigerator. You can see an active insulator emerging from this example. Even simpler is using a duel purpose panel to both heat water and produce current. The things you showed on this presentation are wonderful and amazing. Thanks very much, we are so blessed by solar panels. This is a discovery which could power a high speed electric aircraft, which we desperately need. Seeing the wonderful blue skies since the jets have been grounded, is revelatory. Jets are so incredibly toxic! The Alice Electric Plane is very nice.
“Solar panels don’t like heat” Neither do Charging batteries. I’ve been staying away from those battery banks with “panels” on them, like those Lit Mobile banks that’s making all these ads with “influencers” I think at some point one of them claimed they could charge the entire battery in 60 minutes.
I'm glad you are reporting on continued advances in clean energy. However, these types of reports always end up sounding like further advanced must be made before renewables will work. Solar is competitive (without subsidies) today and is already displacing non-renewables. It might be nice to caveat information about advances as additional advantages over the working baseline that exists today.
it's not displacing much non-renewable's currently. In the few places that do have high levels of solar electrical input to the grid they've been having problems. Without some breakthrough in energy storage, this is likely to continue to be the case. Once you remove all the subsidies solar has (both monetary and otherwise) it becomes a much less valued prospect. This is why i'm in favor of development of nuclear, it's the only source of energy to date that could supplant fossil fuels without requiring some kind of technological breakthrough that may or may not ever actually happen.
nice to know about PV trackers. we are in process to install solar power over large base. and PV trackers is just something we were looking for. cheers.
THANK YOU for shedding light (FAHK, I did not meant to pun today) on organic photovoltaics. I bartend now, but I was working on new types of dyes and polymers in grad school almost a decade ago, and was always flabbergasted that no one really knew that these...even today. Again, thank ye.
Great video, I'm sad you didn't get into perovskites though, from all my research this seems to be a promising alternative to silicon, Cheaper as well!
Perovskites are wonderful materials for the long-term path/future of solar, right now they are cheap but the capital expenditure needed for a new perovskite-and-silicon capable line versus simply improving silicon processing isn’t worth it (yet).
the organics layered over silicon is also possible, as silicon doesn't use what the organics do. The partial efficiency loss to the silicon isn't much of a problem, and it'll improve.
Not really. The window would become warm because of the solar energy travelling through it which will essentially warm up a house. It will reduce UV damage to carpet and furniture compared to clear windows
@@nasmyth13 It probably would help keep the room cooler. If ANY window blocks 40% of the light coming through it then that is already a significant drop in the amount of solar energy heating up the room. Also, these windows absorb and convert infrared energy into electricity. When light shines into a room the surfaces it hits emit infrared radiation which is normally reflected back into the room by normal window glass, thereby creating a greenhouse effect of trapped thermal energy. These windows would instead absorb and convert a substantial portion of that infrared energy into electricity rather than reflecting it back into the room, thus allowing the window to generate electricity from both sides AND keeping the room a bit cooler. ... in theory...
@@HermanVonPetri but the transformation from energy to electricity would generate heat therefore the window would get warmer as the day went on. That heat would then radiate into the home. You could avoid the heat entering the home by having a double glazed system with argon gas. Or some other form of glass insulation
@@nasmyth13 Nah, I don't think so. Energy that passes the window will heat the inside of your home. The electricety would slightly warm your window but way more energy would be transported away as electricity, while otherwise most of the energy would be used to heat the inside of your house. It probably would be hotter than if you put shading in front of your window, though. The advantage would be, that you can still look out of your window, while shading blocks your view. There are some office buildings that can't put shading in front of their window for desingn reasons, solar windows would propably help them. Furthermore they could use the electricity to power the AC
Here in NW Ohio, just outside the Toledo-metro area, there is a house that was built before I was born (1984) with 6 panels. Those old-style, rigid, EXPENSIVE panels, were set up with 2 on the roof, and 4 on the side of the house. From day 1, they have not had an electric bill due to these panels. In fact, they cut a deal with Toledo Edison (First Energy) where they would store half of their own energy for themselves, and half, they'd SELL to Toledo Edison on an as-needed basis. That still stands true today. During that huge blackout that took out New York to Ohio and part of Canada, they were able to keep themselves and their neighbors up and running. When a tornadoes took out a good chunk of Lake Township in 2010, they volunteered their power for people to charge their phones. If these people can power their home with THOSE panels, there's no reason people can't do it with their own homes today.
Idea for solar panel cooling - assemble the cells onto a metal backing, and on said metal backing you put coolant pipes, coolant pipes transfer heat away from the panels, and, bonus, heat can be transferred into a calorifier tank to heat up water, win win win... :D
Atacama, Gobi, Great Basin, Iranian desert, Namib, Takla, Turkestan desert. We don't have to put panels in hot deserts, there is plenty of area in the cold ones. Though agri and floating solar power is cool too.
You guys need to talk about how much energy storage you need to have a stable solar power grid. The answer is a lot of batteries, and there's not enough ressources to make them. It's unsustainable :|. If countries all turned to nuclear power, those solar dollars could be used for electric vehicles; heat pumps and non-fossil heaters for homes, which are all already existing technologies. We could actually get rid of most of our petrol.
Why do you think your country dreads the development and use of nuclear power in other countries? Because it fears that the countries they tortured and stole resources from would give them a taste of what they did to Japan.
@@bidishadey3815 "what they did to Japan?" What on earth are you babbling about? No one *did* anything to Japan, genius. There are these things called earthquakes, which cause these things called tsunamis. And neither of those things can be controlled by people. It's absurd of you to think so, in fact.
Wyvern, you seem stuck in the past. Batteries are not the only way to hold energy for later, for one thing. For another, battery technology has progressed a lot, is progressing quite a bit, all the time, and will continue to be progressing in the future. That's what technology does. Stop swallowing the nonsense that the fossil fuel companies are pumping out so people think they are irreplaceable. They are very replaceable. As for nuclear, it needs to be updated to the newest generation of nuclear power plant, which can even use spent nuclear waste from older nuclear plants. They can use that "waste" up to the point where it is nearly completely gone, compared to the now old-style nuclear plants. And they can't melt down like the old-style can, either.
Another great idea. Here in the US we have massive blacktop parking lots for malls, shopping centers, etc.. Knock out two birds with one stone. Create shade and covered walking areas by building structures over these lots that house solar panels and produce electricity for the buildings the parking lot houses and for electric vehicles.
Don't forget about those solar windows that have microscopic dots in them that absorb light passing through and then emits a different wavelength that does full internal reflection, so the light bounces around until it hits the top or bottom of the glass which has regular solar cells to generate electricity. Then there's the living solar panels which are effectively algae tanks which use the light to produce the algae that is used in a type of combustion generator to power the building.
I'm a big fan of renewable energy. That's why I invested in (Ascent Solar Technologies). Technology is changing rapidly, and the future looks brighter. More people want easy access to cleaner energy, regardless if it's for their cellphone, house, or transportation.
Theoretically, we could literally cover entire buildings, roads, infrastructures, anything with solar panels if we could find more materials that convert infrared radiation to electricity.
But how much will it cost to replace ALL of those solar panels after they expire? Those things don't last forever! The average life of an economical type is 10 years and that's only if they don't get damaged by natural or unnatural causes.
@@r08800 Yeah, because there has not been a single bit of progress in nuclear tech since chernobyl, also it's not the fault of nuclear energy that people built a reactor in an area known for loads of tectonic activity. Please for the love of god, educate yourself even a little bit before you open your mouth, even an idiot can seem wise when they know to shut their mouths.
Some super cool inventions there! I especially like the semi transparent solar cells. Imagine if every non north facing office building window was coated with it? (I know opposite in the Southern Hem) I can imagine it would make a huge dent in the need for fossil fool plants. The fabric one is pretty cool too though, but it should clearly be concentrated on harder fabrics that sit in the sun all the time, like patio umbrellas or shades. COOL!
I wonder how the last one could be applied to also heat water for showering/bathing, cooking or maybe even taken to an extreme and used in industrial production, completely eliminating emissions in a LOT of factory types.
Makes sense directional solar panels mounted high enough to protect plants controlling the sun and the shade very good, good bye desert, hello carbon sink ! Why do we need huge rent extracting, inefficient office buildings a waste of energy, in a new mindset we all might organize and work from home from a knew, low energy system can you imagine the savings too society that could be used on something more helpful!
Everybody working from home has some disadvantages for efficiency - eg, everybody heating/cooling their homes separately (rarely as efficiently as a modern office building). But perhaps not travelling to work each day (a very energy-expensive process) would offset that?
1:10 less room to absorb sunlight? if electrons are more excited through heat, they shouldn't need to absorb more energy through sunlight to cross the p-n-junction. Your explanation isn't an explanation at all. I get that the actual reasons are very complicated but putting it like that is just wrong.
Those have their benefits, like the molten salt acting as a battery storing power after the sun goes down for awhile, but from what I've heard they dont have a great return on investment and the current plants havent performed as well as expected.
Molten salt towers work fine in hot climate, like in deserts, in Europe they work in Spain or Italy. In northern countries they don't work, but panels work there. So it's not a this or the other one, both makes sense, it depends on the region you use it.
In warm areas, since air conditioning/refrigeration loading is the greatest energy problem and global warming is going to make it a greater problem, one of the best systems is to skip the photo/voltaic and produce refrigerant through a process called absorption refrigeration. Large institutions (hospitals, hotels) use it to recover energy from low grade waste heat from other processes . Low grade heat can also come from the Sun heating rooftops.
You can make your own cells out of toothpaste and the carbon collected from a lighter onto the glass for the cell. Just bake them. The Russian Hacker shows you how.
About solar windows: The human eye can easily adjust to different light levels. I was astonished to find that the skylight in my dining room passes only 10% of the light hitting it. (E.g., on a cloudy day, 1400 lumens when outside the same device measures 14,000 lumens.) So 50% tint may not be any problem at all.
Yeah, they're too busy propping up fossil fuel companies that don't need those big, fat subsidies, huge tax cuts, *and* billions (trillions?) in profits each year.
I like the idea of the window pane panels, but since I use passive solar heating in my home, I suspect that is a non starter. But the last one about the solar fuel sounds like advanced thermal mass, neat!
You leave out some VERY important points in this video... - We need to produce ALL of our energy with low carbon energy sources in order to meet CO2 emissions reduction goals, not just electricity. - Because the greedy rule everything and are obsessed with finding some magical, profitable solution to the problem of global warming, we're reducing emissions FAR too slowly and will need to capture GIGATONS of CO2 from the atmosphere and/or oceans as a result. Producing enough energy to make this possible would be impossible with solar, it simply wouldn't be practical to produce energy with solar on that scale. - Solar energy simply can't displace fossil fuels, it's EROEI is FAR too low. - The land area required to produce a significant amount of energy with solar is phenomenal. Heck, to replace a single nuclear power plant, you'd need a PV installation the size of the city that I live in! - - Storage is an enormous problem. - Since this is a science show, show us a study which details using solar and wind to supply baseload energy for an entire country. Discuss the environmental impact of producing and installing such an insanely large number of solar panels and/or wind turbines, discuss the environmental impact of producing such an insanely large number of battery storage systems, discuss the environmental impact of dealing with all of those systems at the end of their useful lives. - - - - Bulldoze the Earth to install solar panels... SO ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY!!!
Floatovoltaics would be great in water supplies where we want to keep sunlight out anyway. It might also help to find a way to combine PV cells with first stage solar water heat.
While solar clothes is not a great idea, you can still use the fabric in your yard as a table cover and/or chair to bring even more solar electricity into your house. Also the interior of the car could be made about of it to pover electric cars... There are a lot more applications to solar fabrics than solar clothes.
@@chulhogan1445 yes, there are. But luckily, science is not a monolith. Scientists can actually work on many different projects at once and even if their project might not be adaptable, others might learn from their insights. Isn't that fun how reality is more complicated than the immediate next thought about a topic?
I like the idea of the floating solar panels in the ocean, add that on top of a system of buoys that convert the motion of the ocean into power as well.
The last one you talked about was the subject of a paper I wrote! The chemical in question is 2,4-norbornadiene and the alternate form is called quadricyclane! It's fascinating
Is it available on the market? Sounds like a safe option to heat a ship...
It's a very interesting idea, is the catalyst expensive?
It'a quite interesting!! Can I ask a question? How do we get norbonadience in common? I mean where does it come from? Could it be formed by benzenes?
At the efficiencies demonstrated in the video, what quantity of fuel would be needed to absorb all the summer solar energy, and later provide winter heat, for a 2 bedroomed Swedish house?
the last one reminded me of those pocket warmers where you click a small metalpallet and while they harden they warm your hands
Tinted windows powering homes in the tropics sounds like a great idea. It's always hot. We could use the shade.
You could use the heat of the sun to power your AC!
@@aidanhennessey5586 That actually sounds like a decent idea. Use energy to move energy
@@aidanhennessey5586 yeah but it's also more efficient to firstly stop the heat from getting inside the house.
Alexandru Draghi and you’d be doing both
You did not listen in phisiks did you!!
SciShow has been my ray of sunshine during quarantine
it really *brightens* my day
Pavor I think you’re missing the joke my friend.
Pavor then continue to reply to someone who doesn’t matter :)
Floating solar could really help with reducing evaporation from reservoirs, like the Los Angeles shade balls.
It's a win-win, the water helps to cool down the panels, and the panels reduce the amount of vapor, I wonder if those shade balls can be covered with this solar fabric.
the problem is the efficiency of solar panels, solar panels are dense black things and most of the solar energy falling on them will just be conducted to the water below so they wouldn't really reduce evaporation like the shade balls but the solar fabric idea for the shade balls sounds great , the only problem I foresee with that is the solar fabric ones getting buried under the other ones and where the power would go but it could probably be dealt with pretty easily
@Paul howitt What plastic toxins? The usual problem with plastic is that it DOES NOT degrade in nature.
I was just about to post that if they put floating solar panels on it someone would start complaining about how solar panels contain toxic chemicals, just like they always do when the issue of recycling them comes up...
@@manjensen1710 I see three obvious issues with that:
1. Covering each ball with that fabric, combined with cost of the fabric, is a lot of work and therefore expensive. Painting them with that solar paint invented few years back would be easier, faster and probably cheaper. But even then you would have the next two issues.
2. Those balls keep moving with wind and changes in water level, which rubs them together and risks damaging the fabric or scraping off the paint. Not only would that degrade the system quickly and lower its output, but we probably don't want scraps of either in the drinking water.
3. Even if you solve the above, how the heck would you gather the power each of those tiny panels collects? A million cables? Put a battery in each and manually collect them to drain it? Simply too much work for too little gain.
A floting raft of panels seems like a better idea, but even it has a major problem: A reservoir is going to be drained and refilled repeatedly and possibly quite often. The raft is meant to survive minor waves, the major changes could harm it, or at least lying on the dry bottom would lose the cooling benefits.
The fabric could be a solution for both issues: stretch long strips of it over the reservoir like sun shades, that way the reservoir gets less heat, the evaporating water could get caught on the fabric and flow back into reservoir, and the fabric panels are also cooled a little. Well, I think it might work, I might be wrong. And wouldn't hundreds of yards long solar fabrics also cost way more than a bunch of smaller and easier to manufacture panels? I hope someone who actually knows more about that tech hears of the idea and at least does the math.
@@AnalystPrime You could just have a long, thin lattice of interconnected solar panels, like a big plastic mesh sheet. When I say thin, I'm talking like perhaps an inch in diameter for the strands. This would allow them to be flexible, and let water pass through and over it. While heat from the solar panels would be conducted to the water, the amount of light they block would more than compensate for it.
Do a show about how solar panels are made. From mining the raw material to instillation to the amount of energy they generate over there service life.
not a whole lot of mining, since silicon is basically sand, but then the silicon needs to be pulled in one single crystal before being cut into thin layers, and this is a very interresting process
@@leumgui photovoltaic cells require doping to work. They aren't pure silicate. Reason being is that the electrons while easily knocked free have to have somewhere to go. Typically the cells are doped with rare earth minerals. It's the process of mining, processing and integrating those materials into manufacture that is detrimental to the environment. It's also why solar cells are toxic if discarded improperly... which is to say discarded period, as there currently is no safe recycling or disposal methods for the technology. Generally speaking solar cells while highly efficient aren't the best way to produce energy if you're looking for a source that is renewable. It's one of the reasons why sterling engines are being looked at again.
@@Soletestament This is incorrect. 95% of a panel can be recycled. Here in Australia, a company called Reclaim PV is doing it. That said, you may be right about the full life-cycle externalities compared to stirling engines and concentrated solar-thermal (or other techs), but it's a difficult thing to run reliable numbers on, so I don't know for sure.
As the technology improves, and it has been doing so, and will continue to do so, the recycling will improve, as well. After all, this video *is* talking about *the future* of solar power.
@@Soletestament however, the doping is something like a gramme per square metre. Not a huge part of the total construction, esp if you take it over 10-20 years.
Dude that heat technology would be so nice in snowy climates.
They should be using them over the canals taking water into California. It would help with the evaporation, make power, etc.
Or even over the reservoirs instead of the millions of black rubber balls that they use now.
@@wirelesmike73 Probably won't happen because it's more expensive unfortunately.
Then they could just build dams over the water anywhere there is a water current. So pretty much they could get a thousand percent our needs just by flowing rivers in this country.
Hydro is over a century old. At thirty percent capacity. and!!! These motor generators could be upgraded to ten times the efficiency.
It's all a sham. Period.
Oh, last month halbach array motors, which are a decade old....was finally in the news mainstream. All the wind turbines needs the motors to be replaced for three times the output. Every one in the country. Right now. Outdated.
Already spent the money to erect them. The cost to upgrade for three times the monetary output, a fraction. Welcome to the future, energy is nothing to have and buy. Fuel and power and cost to manufacture in the next decade will bottom out. Every manufacturing facility will now pay a fraction energy costs. And soon, will eliminate labor. I.e. people
@@Guru_1092 Maybe. But it's also more productive. There's a trade-off for everything.
I hadn't even heard of solar fabrics. That's extraordinary. Imagine having solar-power canopies and tents? Imagine having a jacket that allows you to charge your smart phone right in your pocket.
I'd wondered if solar technology could be applied to windows. I had no idea it was an actual possibility now. Look at all these massive corporate structures with windows? With the right workings, they could basically become solar towers.
Will cost a fortune to make and be a fad like all the other tech clothing over the decades. Plus how are you going to wash it in a machine? What happens it if shorts and electrocutes you? Wont ever happen in mainstream. Just another tree hugging idea for the liberal hipster minority.
I think the cost and washing are will be solved soon, the real problem is efficiency. We've seen so many "breakthroughs" but the current efficiency wouldn't be enough to light a 0.5W bulb, let alone charging your phone at 5W or 18W.
There are already prototypes of solar powered clothing
@@anarchyantz1564 The first computers took up space in entire rooms. Now we have technology ten times more powerful than that (if not more) that fits in our pocket.
Technology is always improving. It could happen.
Hello Hank! I’ll be starting a PhD in Electrical Engineering at ASU in August focusing on PV. Great explanations all around! I would love to work with SciShow to talk more on solar and show off some amazing labs in Tempe. I’ve been following your content since high school and would love to help further any kind of education.
Should prolly email them about this too
Go Sun Devils!
electrical solar panels arent great, oil based ones are best, mirrors reflecting desert sunlight onto pipes filled with oil that then create pressure /energy to turn a turbine ,also cheaper to make and maintain
@@girlsdrinkfeck we must use nuclear. The awnser is simple
@@UKSkateboarding yes waste product everywhere !!! and radiation being flooded into our waters
We have a lake in France where Floatovoltaics have been installed last fall. It works fine. Another smaller lake is set to be floatovoltaic'd in july this year. As artificial lakes used mainly for irrigation, they're basically 'dead' surfaces: nobody's fighting over that. And the water cools the panels, so yay. We need more, that's just a few drops in the ocean for now.
I hadn't heard about solar windows with transparent cells, but I think I've read something about curved cells to just stick around the poles of wind turbines, along with the agrivoltaics. Sounds like a lot of crops could have those, perched several feet above ground (so farmers can still drive their engines underneath?).
Solar fabrics sound outlandish, but why the heck not. Especially on canopies sitting all day in the sun. Solar thermal fuels look like the start of something that works but would remain marginally used, like geothermal is now.
I've bought a house this year, with standard PV panels on the roof, and facing East : it gets sunlight mostly in the morning (not too hot) + when the weather gets stormy in summer, it's usually in the afternoon when panels are not facing the sun anymore (not a big loss). Sold back to the grid, the production offsets pretty much my entire annual power bill. When selling at lower prices in the future becomes less attractive, I'm adding batteries so I can use my own power directly, and only sell the surplus.
Not logical
@@zachariahayers6273 it is
French are always fighting or rioting over something.
on a un lac comme ça ?
fichtre, j'en apprends tous les jours x)
@@kevinba6633 I know right x) #themoreyouknow
It will be interesting to see how solar tech gets integrated into urban cities over the next decade.
I'm looking forward to it, will be nice to eventualy get rid of fossile fuels thanks to the amazing people who are working on it and people like the guys on SciShow who help to spread the news and information about it.
I feel like the top of urban buildings is going to go to food and on the outside of cities solar
Especially if it means that we end up with a distributed energy grid, who will own the energy of its coming from our own roof
Go to Germany. You will see
@@scharftalicous in cities people wont own the top of the buildings, that space is going to be rented out just like the living space
My husband and I both watched this today - and we had a question regarding agrovolltaics: does this arrangement affect crop growth? It would seem a poor trade if solar panel efficiency went up 5% while crop growth fell by a large amount. Thank you for all the wonderful work you do. We have become huge fans during quarantine, and plan to keep up with you.
get this. solar textiles, right? on a boat... Solar Sail...
Huge 🧠
@SSSniperKhan Which one?
Solar sail is used in exploration satellite
You a decade slow. Nice try
@@weareallbornmad410 Planet of the Humans. It's on TH-cam.
One thing you didn't mention about floatovoltaics: they reduce evaporation from the body of water beneath them, making them potentially valuable on reservoirs in areas where water shortages are common. Fixed solar panels can also be used over waterways like canals to produce the same effect on evaporation. India has been doing this for over a decade.
Also, I'm pretty sure I read something about solar cells which produce hydrocarbons rather than electricity.
This guys anchoring seems so natural and unscripted it's fun to watch.
Nerd magic. 😂
2:09 sure but does the solar panels influence de efficiency of the crops ?
Some crops grow in the shade, like arabiga coffee, so not all but many crops may be compatible with this idea.
My concern with that idea was more along the lines of how much more difficult it would be to mass-harvest the crops with heavy machinery.
@@dan_ You won't be putting these over wheat fields, but instead more shrub and vine crops that usually need to be harvested by hand anyway (peas, berries, coffee, chili peppers, cocoa etc.).
Lots of crops can deal with a bit if shade quite happily, especially during the hottest part of summer. That's when we constantly deal with sunburnt tomatoes and such here in our home gardens. The shade would be very helpful. We have even put mesh material over our potted tomatoes before, and it really helped to prevent the sunburns. I suspect this would work the same way.
@@dan_ could cover cranberry fields.
4:30 tbh I really like the look of solar panels on rooves.
Amazing. I always thought that desserts would be the best for solar panels but it makes sense why they aren't.
But, will their be cake and ice cream?
Sandstorms also cause shifting topography that can also bury such structures.
They still can be. If the panels are kept cool and clean.
I’m deserts they tend to use a central tower that melts salt instead of using a bunch of solar cells
This literally gives me hope for a better future. Thanks Scishow! Amazing work💎
Impressive facts, I’m basically preparing myself for the future cuz some day I will create the greatest solar power company on earth
Correction: The statement "It always takes energy for molecules to form chemical bonds with each other" is incorrect. Generally speaking, when chemical bonds are formed the molecules are in a more stable / lower energy state whereas when bonds are broken they are entering a less stable / higher energy state. This is not always the case and in the example shown the molecule is absorbing energy and changing to a higher energy state without forming or breaking bonds. This should not be confused with Endothermic vs Exothermic reactions as the difference can be caused by the number of bonds being formed / broken in the reaction.
A thermoacoustic Stirling engine loves heat and uses sound waves to generate electricity. No moving parts, last forever, made from basic materials and uses solar collectors like magnifying glasses for “fuel.” Los Alamos developed the concept 25 years ago.
i love the idea of storing sunlight energy for decades.
so awesome the deserts are being eyed for building solar cell infrastructures in combination with plants which will cool the deserts for habitability, thus terraforming them to sustain more planetary life.
i am a big advocate for embedding our windows and clothes with power-producing technology.
If they could be adapted to grow plants under the photovoltaics, that would help cool the temperatures of the solar cells, as well as help turn the Sahara (a few kilometers/miles at a time, perhaps) back into a temperate zone. Would be a helluva terraforming job, but could certainly be a plus for those that live nearby!
All of these are great ideas, I'm particularly fond of the solar windows. For years I've thought cars should have small solar panels as standard equipment so they can circulate air while parked, avoiding the ever-unpleasant 'autogreenhouse'.
Yes Hank, give me more ideas for my solarpunk fantasy setting.
This is exactly what I was thinking 😂
Foxly was dethroned again, a rare moment.
If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration -N. Tesla 🌟
Covid-19 Education LOL
Solar glass used for greenhouses, powers air circulation (and possibly water pumps) for the greenhouse.
Seems like a win-win situation there.
I live for this stuff. Technology is SO COOL!
I really like the cloth panels for putting over your backyard deck.
3% efficiency just by adding crops is actually a really big deal. That land can serve 2 purposes and at least one of those will benefit from the other.
I'm also going to look into the solar thermal fuel - sounds pretty interesting.
Yup, pick a crop that likes partial shade and you're doing even better!
2d materials like graphene and graphene-Flouride are also being used in some preliminary testing for transparent solar cells, although their dream is a spray on style coating for regular windows. This type of tinted window solar cell could help MASSIVELY in preemptively building some of the infrastructure like wiring and batteries into existing structures in preparation for technology like that, making those future techs far more attractive to investors and governments alike to help fund that kind of research since it will be much more easily applied to the market if there is already a “base market” so to speak. Very nice to hear.
Trackers have been around for years. I installed a set at my old off-grid place in 2009
My university had some. They were broken all the time, though.
one-axis tracker where also common. Less expensive, less complicated, less prone to failure and only a bit less efficient then 2-Axis tracker.
BUT for both of them there is hardly a business case any more: the + in efficiency is not as big as the + in cost :/
@@Krusesensei That is variable depending on your geographical location, as mentioned in the video. Plus (and also in response to the original comment), as the technology matures, the reliability and efficiency improves. Thus expanding the geographical range where it becomes profitable.
@@Temp0raryName the trackers are mostly just framework and motors, neither are a maturing technology. Both reliability and efficiency are now dependent on the money one wants to invest.
@@garrett6064 With spans of decades, covering ones where new materials and new efficiencies in making them can be discovered and developed, even framework can improve.
Reducing weight, improving durability and lowering cost, for example. Even shaving off a few percent (as the video says) can make a big saving long term.
Likewise motors can be optimised for this specific task. And there is always room for development, such as with self-repairing materials.
Then, of course, there are the unexpected developments which can be game changers. Plants have been doing these feats for millions of years, with great efficiency. As we learn how to emulate their techniques we will be able to grow motors which do not have anywhere near the current costs.
Finally, if you always keep an eye on the effect on the bottom line, you can cherry pick the emerging technologies and materials which give you the cost savings. Even with 'mature' technologies.
So here the thing (I know because I'm an inorganic materials chemist who works directly on this problem). Silicon (even doped) is hardly the most efficient material to use for solar power. It's band gap is 1.1eV, which while isn't bad isn't the ideal 1.4eV (the theoretical best band gap for photovoltaics, which I will say only predicts a max of 32% efficiency). I'm working on a class of chemicals called perovskites, which can get much closer to the magic 1.4eV (I think the best we've gotten so far is 1.52eV) that could one day replace traditional solar panels. Unfortunately a lot of perovskites are subject to degradation in ambient conditions. That's where my research comes in. I'm trying to find perovskite-like compounds that are stable in all sorts of environments while still maintaining a better-than-silicon ban gap.
PV tracker's sound like a Sunflower?
Yup
Someone already made an artificial sunflower made of solar panels, it's supposed to be very efficient:
th-cam.com/video/7jfvmaWDDMM/w-d-xo.html
Thermal fuel sounds like a good idea. They have been working on this with many variations. This idea almost sounds like those hot packs you squeeze the device to activate it.
What if you use solar glass and solar fabrics, like curtains in a window?
Put them on every bus stop and toilet in every park with motion sensor lights.
Put them on every roof in the city.
Thermal batteries sound great. Because they can store the energy for so long, we can absorb the energy during the summer and use it in the winter. Seems like it'd be effective year round.
Very informative and useful information in this video, thank you to the producers.
7:38 As it happens, I'm actually all in for a cool cyberpunk mask these days. Where can I buy?!
I have been mulling over a poly dimensional collector for years now. One idea is 'active insulation'. A solar panel likes to be cool so there is excess heat to compress and circulate a gas or gasses, or fluids. The panel is simply using the gasses to cool the panel, but the expanded gasses are also stored energy. Expanded gasses are used to make cold, or actually absorb heat, in a refrigerator. You can see an active insulator emerging from this example. Even simpler is using a duel purpose panel to both heat water and produce current. The things you showed on this presentation are wonderful and amazing. Thanks very much, we are so blessed by solar panels. This is a discovery which could power a high speed electric aircraft, which we desperately need. Seeing the wonderful blue skies since the jets have been grounded, is revelatory. Jets are so incredibly toxic! The Alice Electric Plane is very nice.
“Solar panels don’t like heat”
Neither do Charging batteries. I’ve been staying away from those battery banks with “panels” on them, like those Lit Mobile banks that’s making all these ads with “influencers”
I think at some point one of them claimed they could charge the entire battery in 60 minutes.
Actually made few simple calculations (I work at solar cell research) and got something near 10 hours with noon conditions 😂 so yeah the ads are BS
Yes they just have a very small battery for this to be true 😄
This should be a yearly video, solar power increases so fast! Need a new one of this vid haha
I'm glad you are reporting on continued advances in clean energy. However, these types of reports always end up sounding like further advanced must be made before renewables will work. Solar is competitive (without subsidies) today and is already displacing non-renewables. It might be nice to caveat information about advances as additional advantages over the working baseline that exists today.
it's not displacing much non-renewable's currently. In the few places that do have high levels of solar electrical input to the grid they've been having problems. Without some breakthrough in energy storage, this is likely to continue to be the case.
Once you remove all the subsidies solar has (both monetary and otherwise) it becomes a much less valued prospect.
This is why i'm in favor of development of nuclear, it's the only source of energy to date that could supplant fossil fuels without requiring some kind of technological breakthrough that may or may not ever actually happen.
Thank you so much, this is very helpful on our project. Thanks a lot
-Future engineer here in the Philippines :)
We need to start investing more in solar energy
But it's not going to happen overnight
nice to know about PV trackers. we are in process to install solar power over large base. and PV trackers is just something we were looking for. cheers.
Are we going to talk about rare Earth's at some point?
THANK YOU for shedding light (FAHK, I did not meant to pun today) on organic photovoltaics. I bartend now, but I was working on new types of dyes and polymers in grad school almost a decade ago, and was always flabbergasted that no one really knew that these...even today. Again, thank ye.
"PV trackers" are traditionally called Heliostats.
Unbelieveble!! I love this channel!!
Great video, I'm sad you didn't get into perovskites though, from all my research this seems to be a promising alternative to silicon, Cheaper as well!
Shay 88 Thanks for your comment, I wasn't aware of these. I watched an interesting video on it here: th-cam.com/video/c26NdCtBnWg/w-d-xo.html
Perovskites are wonderful materials for the long-term path/future of solar, right now they are cheap but the capital expenditure needed for a new perovskite-and-silicon capable line versus simply improving silicon processing isn’t worth it (yet).
the organics layered over silicon is also possible, as silicon doesn't use what the organics do. The partial efficiency loss to the silicon isn't much of a problem, and it'll improve.
The solar window cells would help keep he building cooler because of the tint right? Or why not
Not really. The window would become warm because of the solar energy travelling through it which will essentially warm up a house. It will reduce UV damage to carpet and furniture compared to clear windows
@@nasmyth13 It probably would help keep the room cooler. If ANY window blocks 40% of the light coming through it then that is already a significant drop in the amount of solar energy heating up the room.
Also, these windows absorb and convert infrared energy into electricity. When light shines into a room the surfaces it hits emit infrared radiation which is normally reflected back into the room by normal window glass, thereby creating a greenhouse effect of trapped thermal energy. These windows would instead absorb and convert a substantial portion of that infrared energy into electricity rather than reflecting it back into the room, thus allowing the window to generate electricity from both sides AND keeping the room a bit cooler.
... in theory...
@@HermanVonPetri but the transformation from energy to electricity would generate heat therefore the window would get warmer as the day went on. That heat would then radiate into the home. You could avoid the heat entering the home by having a double glazed system with argon gas. Or some other form of glass insulation
@@nasmyth13 Nah, I don't think so. Energy that passes the window will heat the inside of your home. The electricety would slightly warm your window but way more energy would be transported away as electricity, while otherwise most of the energy would be used to heat the inside of your house.
It probably would be hotter than if you put shading in front of your window, though. The advantage would be, that you can still look out of your window, while shading blocks your view. There are some office buildings that can't put shading in front of their window for desingn reasons, solar windows would propably help them. Furthermore they could use the electricity to power the AC
Here in NW Ohio, just outside the Toledo-metro area, there is a house that was built before I was born (1984) with 6 panels. Those old-style, rigid, EXPENSIVE panels, were set up with 2 on the roof, and 4 on the side of the house. From day 1, they have not had an electric bill due to these panels. In fact, they cut a deal with Toledo Edison (First Energy) where they would store half of their own energy for themselves, and half, they'd SELL to Toledo Edison on an as-needed basis. That still stands true today. During that huge blackout that took out New York to Ohio and part of Canada, they were able to keep themselves and their neighbors up and running. When a tornadoes took out a good chunk of Lake Township in 2010, they volunteered their power for people to charge their phones. If these people can power their home with THOSE panels, there's no reason people can't do it with their own homes today.
10,000% chance a dad came up with the name “floatovoltaic.”
Sounds about right.
Probably high fived himself in the bathroom mirror, too
Idea for solar panel cooling - assemble the cells onto a metal backing, and on said metal backing you put coolant pipes, coolant pipes transfer heat away from the panels, and, bonus, heat can be transferred into a calorifier tank to heat up water, win win win... :D
Thorium power
We will need to hang the watermelons.
*Solar freaking roadways intensifies*
Atacama, Gobi, Great Basin, Iranian desert, Namib, Takla, Turkestan desert. We don't have to put panels in hot deserts, there is plenty of area in the cold ones.
Though agri and floating solar power is cool too.
You guys need to talk about how much energy storage you need to have a stable solar power grid. The answer is a lot of batteries, and there's not enough ressources to make them. It's unsustainable :|. If countries all turned to nuclear power, those solar dollars could be used for electric vehicles; heat pumps and non-fossil heaters for homes, which are all already existing technologies. We could actually get rid of most of our petrol.
Well said. It seems the people pushing solar forget the sun doesn't shine 24/7
Why do you think your country dreads the development and use of nuclear power in other countries? Because it fears that the countries they tortured and stole resources from would give them a taste of what they did to Japan.
@@bidishadey3815 "what they did to Japan?" What on earth are you babbling about? No one *did* anything to Japan, genius. There are these things called earthquakes, which cause these things called tsunamis. And neither of those things can be controlled by people. It's absurd of you to think so, in fact.
Wyvern, you seem stuck in the past. Batteries are not the only way to hold energy for later, for one thing. For another, battery technology has progressed a lot, is progressing quite a bit, all the time, and will continue to be progressing in the future. That's what technology does. Stop swallowing the nonsense that the fossil fuel companies are pumping out so people think they are irreplaceable. They are very replaceable.
As for nuclear, it needs to be updated to the newest generation of nuclear power plant, which can even use spent nuclear waste from older nuclear plants. They can use that "waste" up to the point where it is nearly completely gone, compared to the now old-style nuclear plants. And they can't melt down like the old-style can, either.
@@MaryAnnNytowl even with the dated nuclear technology in use now, it's killed far less people then any other source of energy.
What about using heat from volcanoes? Probably too unpredictable
Is anyone else hoping for solar sails so boats can just go all day.
Just avoid cloudy becalmed days.
Another great idea. Here in the US we have massive blacktop parking lots for malls, shopping centers, etc.. Knock out two birds with one stone. Create shade and covered walking areas by building structures over these lots that house solar panels and produce electricity for the buildings the parking lot houses and for electric vehicles.
I've been watching Sci Show for years. I liked their videos. That is why I decided to create my own sci-fi/futurist Channel. 👍🙂
Don't forget about those solar windows that have microscopic dots in them that absorb light passing through and then emits a different wavelength that does full internal reflection, so the light bounces around until it hits the top or bottom of the glass which has regular solar cells to generate electricity.
Then there's the living solar panels which are effectively algae tanks which use the light to produce the algae that is used in a type of combustion generator to power the building.
I think he enjoyed saying “floatovoltaics”
It's a fun word to say. Ditto hobgoblin and hornswoggle.
I'm a big fan of renewable energy. That's why I invested in (Ascent Solar Technologies). Technology is changing rapidly, and the future looks brighter. More people want easy access to cleaner energy, regardless if it's for their cellphone, house, or transportation.
This video was the exact length of time it takes a person to consume one baconator sandwich.
Im questioning if i eat too fast now 🤣
since 10 years I am hearing future of solar. It is still contribute 3 % of world energy need
Theoretically, we could literally cover entire buildings, roads, infrastructures, anything with solar panels if we could find more materials that convert infrared radiation to electricity.
Jesus why roads? Just why?
But how much will it cost to replace ALL of those solar panels after they expire? Those things don't last forever! The average life of an economical type is 10 years and that's only if they don't get damaged by natural or unnatural causes.
That's why I said theoretically. Very far off into the future.
Awesome info. Great job, as always.
So what you’re saying is, you don’t like the term “floatovoltaics”
Thanks SciShow
"it's reliable, it's powerful"
Sounds like you're describing nuclear energy
I hope to god they do a video of nuclear energy and dispel people's unjustified fears
And it makes waste so toxic that nobody on earth knows where to put it. All efforts to come up with a solution have failed. All of them.
Would you like to live in Japan ? No ??
A bit of Chernobyl fresh air then ? Hmmmm
@@r08800 Yeah, because there has not been a single bit of progress in nuclear tech since chernobyl, also it's not the fault of nuclear energy that people built a reactor in an area known for loads of tectonic activity.
Please for the love of god, educate yourself even a little bit before you open your mouth, even an idiot can seem wise when they know to shut their mouths.
Robbo How you ended up on a SciShow video while you write ignorant comments I will never know.
So many fantastic ideas. I honestly can’t wait
what are you talking??? 5:05 glass is just as heavy as silicon, in fact silica is an ingredient in common "glass". odd
Thad ward I think the point is that the cells are separate from the glass. They can be applied to glass windows that we’re already using.
He's talking about lighter as in more transparent
xXMountain DewXx this is true, perhaps this is what he meant.
Some super cool inventions there! I especially like the semi transparent solar cells. Imagine if every non north facing office building window was coated with it? (I know opposite in the Southern Hem) I can imagine it would make a huge dent in the need for fossil fool plants. The fabric one is pretty cool too though, but it should clearly be concentrated on harder fabrics that sit in the sun all the time, like patio umbrellas or shades. COOL!
I must be psychic cuz I searched sci show a minute after this was posted
You try too hard.
NML Wright deadass notifications aren’t on
I wonder how the last one could be applied to also heat water for showering/bathing, cooking or maybe even taken to an extreme and used in industrial production, completely eliminating emissions in a LOT of factory types.
Go solar go
Go solar go, go go!
Last one seems amazing.
Makes sense directional solar panels mounted high enough to protect plants controlling the sun and the shade very good, good bye desert, hello carbon sink ! Why do we need huge rent extracting, inefficient office buildings a waste of energy, in a new mindset we all might organize and work from home from a knew, low energy system can you imagine the savings too society that could be used on something more helpful!
Everybody working from home has some disadvantages for efficiency - eg, everybody heating/cooling their homes separately (rarely as efficiently as a modern office building).
But perhaps not travelling to work each day (a very energy-expensive process) would offset that?
Amazing new ideas to improve the solar energy efforts.Using them all in creative combinations will accelerate adoption of solar technology.
1:10 less room to absorb sunlight? if electrons are more excited through heat, they shouldn't need to absorb more energy through sunlight to cross the p-n-junction.
Your explanation isn't an explanation at all. I get that the actual reasons are very complicated but putting it like that is just wrong.
blazebluebass
Feel free to make your own TH-cam videos then.
Hank this is awfully, painfully optimistic for the year 2020, plz, don't tempt it. 💛
#1 Come on. PV panels aren't the only way to harvest solar energy. Why not molten salt towers?
Those are the ones for desserts
Those have their benefits, like the molten salt acting as a battery storing power after the sun goes down for awhile, but from what I've heard they dont have a great return on investment and the current plants havent performed as well as expected.
Molten salt towers work fine in hot climate, like in deserts, in Europe they work in Spain or Italy. In northern countries they don't work, but panels work there. So it's not a this or the other one, both makes sense, it depends on the region you use it.
@@simonm1447 Looks to me that they're specifically talking about deserts.
In warm areas, since air conditioning/refrigeration loading is the greatest energy problem and global warming is going to make it a greater problem, one of the best systems is to skip the photo/voltaic and produce refrigerant through a process called absorption refrigeration. Large institutions (hospitals, hotels) use it to recover energy from low grade waste heat from other processes . Low grade heat can also come from the Sun heating rooftops.
Nuclear Fusión? +_+
Wonderful shirt, Hank!
You can make your own cells out of toothpaste and the carbon collected from a lighter onto the glass for the cell.
Just bake them.
The Russian Hacker shows you how.
About solar windows: The human eye can easily adjust to different light levels. I was astonished to find that the skylight in my dining room passes only 10% of the light hitting it. (E.g., on a cloudy day, 1400 lumens when outside the same device measures 14,000 lumens.) So 50% tint may not be any problem at all.
Wish our government wasn't knee capping it to keep it out of competition
Yeah, they're too busy propping up fossil fuel companies that don't need those big, fat subsidies, huge tax cuts, *and* billions (trillions?) in profits each year.
I like the idea of the window pane panels, but since I use passive solar heating in my home, I suspect that is a non starter. But the last one about the solar fuel sounds like advanced thermal mass, neat!
You leave out some VERY important points in this video...
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We need to produce ALL of our energy with low carbon energy sources in order to meet CO2 emissions reduction goals, not just electricity.
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Because the greedy rule everything and are obsessed with finding some magical, profitable solution to the problem of global warming, we're reducing emissions FAR too slowly and will need to capture GIGATONS of CO2 from the atmosphere and/or oceans as a result. Producing enough energy to make this possible would be impossible with solar, it simply wouldn't be practical to produce energy with solar on that scale.
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Solar energy simply can't displace fossil fuels, it's EROEI is FAR too low.
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The land area required to produce a significant amount of energy with solar is phenomenal. Heck, to replace a single nuclear power plant, you'd need a PV installation the size of the city that I live in! -
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Storage is an enormous problem.
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Since this is a science show, show us a study which details using solar and wind to supply baseload energy for an entire country. Discuss the environmental impact of producing and installing such an insanely large number of solar panels and/or wind turbines, discuss the environmental impact of producing such an insanely large number of battery storage systems, discuss the environmental impact of dealing with all of those systems at the end of their useful lives.
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Bulldoze the Earth to install solar panels... SO ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY!!!
Well said.
Number 5 seems like a really interesting option, especially in colder climates. No wonder it comes from Sweden
taaaaaaste the sun-!
@NML Wright -well the sun IS a deadly laser-
Floatovoltaics would be great in water supplies where we want to keep sunlight out anyway. It might also help to find a way to combine PV cells with first stage solar water heat.
06:34 what a waste of time and resources :-(
The fabrics don't have to be for clothing. What about tents or sails?
While solar clothes is not a great idea, you can still use the fabric in your yard as a table cover and/or chair to bring even more solar electricity into your house. Also the interior of the car could be made about of it to pover electric cars...
There are a lot more applications to solar fabrics than solar clothes.
@@oleggrigorjev6876 my point was that there are more urgent or low hanging problems to solve in the PV universe but ok
@@chulhogan1445 yes, there are. But luckily, science is not a monolith. Scientists can actually work on many different projects at once and even if their project might not be adaptable, others might learn from their insights. Isn't that fun how reality is more complicated than the immediate next thought about a topic?
@SSSniperKhan LOL
I like the idea of the floating solar panels in the ocean, add that on top of a system of buoys that convert the motion of the ocean into power as well.
It wouldn't really be put in the ocean, it is meant more for reservoirs etc.