Solar PV and Batteries Integrated into One Device
Here’s an article describing an invention at the Ohio State University, which OSU professor Yiying Wu says will reduce the costs of renewable energy. “The state of the art is to use a solar panel to capture the light, and then use a cheap battery to store the energy,” Wu said. “We’ve integrated both functions into one device. Any time you can do that, you reduce cost.”
I’m excited by the concept, but unconvinced that this will truly make solar energy less expensive. In particular, Dr. Wu is incorrect that hybridizing functions necessarily brings down costs. I could build a hair drier that also makes toast, but I doubt I could reduce the cost of providing both those activities.
I agree about the cost thing, it definitely looks interesting though! Also not much of a surprise DOE is funding it, they work with many universities on this stuff. The part on 100% efficiency caught my attention. Not sure what the commercial plausibility is but we will see.
I think the point may be that the cost reduction comes when you store solar power and use it at times and places when/where direct solar feed is unavailable – either at night, or places that are remote from the solar panel – and it therefore reduces cost because the origin is cheap solar power (rather than coal or fuel oil with their attendant hidden costs).