Solar energy is currently leading the push for renewable energy, and it is easy to see why. Solar panels are easy to install, are dirt cheap and last for decades. But they aren't without their drawbacks. To make a single panel takes a vast amount of energy, and in the process, it emits heaps of carbon emissions and deadly toxic byproducts. But a recent breakthrough could change that by making an unused solar technology far more powerful. But is this enough to make solar the ultimate clean energy?
Our current solar panel technology is silicon-based. Thes panels have been mostly unchanged since their first inception in the 80s, with some upgrades in efficiency along the way, allowing them to be around 15% efficient today. But the real evolution over the decades has been the cost. Back in the day, solar panels, and therefore power, would cost orders of magnitude more than fossil fuels. But now, the price per panel has dropped dramatically to the point where it is the cheapest form of energy available. This is why solar power is the fastest-growing low-carbon energy source.
But silicon is a complex material to work with. It takes a lot of energy, catalysts and wastage to make each one. In fact, it takes 250 kWh of energy to make one panel. That is enough energy to drive a Tesla Model S over 800 miles. It is possible to power this electrically with renewable energy, but many manufacturers don't as it is impractical and instead opt to use fossil fuel power. This is why solar panels aren't carbon neutral despite producing no emissions while making power. Instead, the total carbon emissions from production are averaged out over the lifespan of the panel.
What's more, horrifically toxic byproducts like cadmium, arsenic and silicon tetrachloride are created during production. These are difficult to dispose of properly as they can leach into the water table and poison or kill life for miles around. But silicon solar panels also contain many highly toxic materials such as cadmium telluride, copper indium selenide, cadmium gallium diselenide, copper indium gallium diselenide, hexafluoroethane, lead, and polyvinyl fluoride. All of these make recycling or disposing of damaged panels difficult, costly, and environmentally damaging (or even deadly) if done incorrectly.
Despite this, solar is still one of the lowest carbon forms of electricity we have. It also has one of the most minor environmental impacts of any power source. Yet it is enough to add up to a significant level as solar power becomes more widely adopted. In short, solar is good, but it needs to get better if we are to go carbon-neutral and save the world.
This is where ferroelectric panels come in.
Ferroelectric solar panels use widely available low-toxicity metals rather than the rare, highly toxic metals in silicon panels. This not only means that they don't have the toxic waste issue of silicon panels but also means their material costs are far cheaper. This cost-saving is further compounded by the fact that they take far less energy to produce, making the cost per panel and, therefore, the cost per kWh much less. But this also means that the carbon emissions and overall environmental impact per kWh are also far less.
So if we were to switch to ferroelectric, solar power could become cheaper, lower carbon and have a significantly lower environmental impact. This is the sort of technology we need to halt climate change and transition to a carbon-neutral society. By significantly undercutting fossil fuels in price, there is no way people can dismiss this technology and the widely available materials and no toxic byproducts allow production to be ramped up quickly and easily. So why don't we use it?
Well, while our current panels operate at a usable 15% ish efficiency, ferroelectric panels tend to be around 0.015% efficient, about a thousand times less. So a 20-acre silicon solar farm can produce 5 MW of power, while a similar-sized ferroelectric one can only make 5 kW. That is bearly enough energy to move a car, let alone power a small town.
But German scientists recently invented a new type of ferroelectric panel with a lattice of three different ferroelectric materials: barium titrate, calcium titrate and strontium titrate. The idea is that together these materials would absorb far more light than they would on their own and increase the panel's power output. But the scientists were taken aback when they saw how much by. Their invention produced 1000 times more power than previous ferroelectric panels, putting it on par with modern silicon ones!
So does this mean a solar revolution could be underway? Will we see ferroelectric technology revolutionise the solar industry, making it cheaper and even more environmentally harmonious? Possibly.
This tech is in the very early stages of development, and there are many other hurdles it needs to pass through to become commercially viable. Firstly it isn't easy to build such an intricate lattice as the layers involved are microscopically thin. This potential difficulty could make the panel far more expensive than anticipated. Moreover, the panel might not last as long as expected in the real world, or it could be far too delicate to transport well.
But there is plenty of buzz around this new panel design, and it seems that the inventors have enough momentum to raise the support to develop it further. Sadly until this fantastic tech is taken through this rigorous testing, we can't predict if it will revolutionise the world.
So yes, this amazing new technology may kick start an incredible solar revolution that is astonishingly cheap and better for the environment. But it has plenty of hurdles to get through before it can. However, even if it doesn't, this remarkable advancement furthers our understanding of how to create solar panels that don't cost the Earth to produce and are far more efficient. Both are crucial developments that can allow solar power to help us save the planet from our climate crimes.
