{"id":4286,"date":"2020-08-02T12:56:10","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T04:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/?p=4286"},"modified":"2020-08-02T12:56:23","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T04:26:23","slug":"changing-how-we-make-solar-panels-could-reduce-their-carbon-emissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/changing-how-we-make-solar-panels-could-reduce-their-carbon-emissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing how we make solar panels could reduce their carbon emissions"},"content":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Donna Lu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Perovskite<\/p>\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>
Perovskite solar cells produced at the Australian National University in Canberra<\/figcaption>
\n

Xinhua \/ Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Changing the way we make\u00a0solar panels<\/a>\u00a0could reduce their carbon footprint, providing a boost to green energy.<\/p>\n

Although solar panels are a source of renewable energy, making them has an environmental impact. Fengqi You at Cornell University in New York and his colleagues have analysed the overall environmental impact of two types of new solar panels, comparing these against panels made with crystalline silicon wafers \u2013 the current industry standard.<\/p>\n

The team found that a new type of\u00a0solar panel<\/a>\u00a0made from two layers of a mineral called perovskite requires a smaller total\u00a0energy input<\/a>\u00a0and results in fewer carbon emissions. The panel, called a perovskite-perovskite tandem, contains two layers of the material on top of each other, each optimised to absorb a section of the electromagnetic spectrum.<\/p>\n

Perovskite solar cells<\/a>\u00a0have only been around for the past decade, and perovskite-perovskite tandem cells are only a couple of years old and not yet widely commercially available, says You.<\/p>\n

His team analysed the carbon footprint and environmental impact of each solar panel over its lifespan, as well as how much time it would take for a panel to generate the amount of energy required to produce it \u2013 a measure known as energy payback time.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0silicon<\/a>\u00a0panels had an average energy payback time of 1.52 years, while the time for perovskite-perovskite tandem panels is only 0.35 years.<\/p>\n

\n

Read more:\u00a0Two-sided solar panels that track the sun produce a third more energy<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n

The group also calculated that in its lifespan, the perovskite tandem cell has an associated emission of about 10.69 grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour of electricity it generates, which is only 43.4 per cent of the emissions for silicon solar panels.<\/p>\n

Another advantage of the perovskite tandem cells is that they are flexible, so could be installed on a variety of surfaces, such as on cars or bicycles, says You. \u201cPerovskite tandems are most likely going to be cheaper than silicon,\u201d he says, particularly in future as production increases and benefits from economies of scale.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

One downside is that perovskite panels don\u2019t seem to be as long-lasting as silicon ones, although their components could be readily recycled.<\/p>\n

Journal reference:\u00a0Science Advances<\/i>,\u00a0DOI: 10.1126\/sciadv.abb0055<\/a><\/p>\nLink<\/a>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Donna Lu Perovskite solar cells produced at the Australian National University in Canberra Xinhua \/ Alamy Changing the way we make\u00a0solar panels\u00a0could reduce their carbon footprint, providing a boost to green energy. Although solar panels are a source of renewable energy, making them has an environmental impact. Fengqi You at Cornell University in New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24954,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24954"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4287,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4286\/revisions\/4287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/people.utm.my\/razman-ayop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}