Solar Electricity

[home4eco]

Infrared Power - whatever happened to this idea? If it's been viable for 4 years already why is not in commercial use already?
Does anyone know more about technologies harvesting infra-red for electricity. If this is possible then all our eletrical needs will be solved. Heat given off by appliances could be harnessed and the appliances would effectively power themsleves, well at least contribute! Spray-On Solar-Power Cells Are True Breakthrough

[MikeBoxwell]

Infra-red power generation is being developed, along with ultra-violet. It's not viable yet because it is hugely expensive to make and very difficult to manufacture, but it is coming.

Spray-on solar isn't really the breakthrough that has been claimed for it - you're talking about amorphous panels - that is how they've always been made. It isn't a case of just getting some paint, sticking it into a spray gun and painting a wall with it though - it's still a complex manufacturing process.

The current designs for infra-red and ultra-violet power generation is using amorphous solar panel techniques by layering multiple films one on top of each other, each one capturing a different spectrum of light - so some layers capture different layers of white light, whilst others capture infra-red and ultra-violet.

By combining all three (and in reality, its a lot more than three) it is possible to build amorphous panels that can capture over 40% of the sun's energy and convert it to electricity. At the moment all this is being carried out in the lab, but in the next five to eight years, we should start seeing the first of this technology becoming commercially available.