The Latest News on Solar Panels

It’s Sunbelievable! That’s what a group of researchers at the University of Notre Dame are calling their newest breakthrough solar product – paint-on solar cells. According to Prashant Kamat, a professor of nanotechnology at Notre Dame, the new technology is a long way from being a replacement for solar panels, but it may eventually make it much cheaper to deploy solar PV systems across the world.

According to Kamat, the new paint contains “quantum dots” – power-producing nanoparticles – that can be spread on any conducting surface without special equipment. Right now, the Sunbelievable paint only achieves 1 percent light to energy conversion, which lags far behind traditional silicon based solar panels with their 10 to 15 percent light to energy conversion ratios. It could be years before the solar paint is ready for the market.

Traditional solar panels, on the other hand, have come down significantly in price. A U.S. university announced last year that it had broken the Holy Grail of solar production – solar panels that cost less than $1 per kWh capability to produce. That’s several years ahead of schedule, and it means that the price of solar PV systems for electrical generation is going to just keep tumbling down. Until that happens, though, the UK government intends to remain involved in prodding and nudging the general population toward more economical and environmentally friendly means of electricity generation like solar PV.

While the Feed-in Transfer scheme has taken a hit in the past year, the government will continue to subsidize the installation of solar panels and solar PV systems and to pay consumers for generating their own electricity. The FiTs currently pays property owners a set amount for each kWh of electricity generated by solar panels installed on their property. The rate varies according to the size of the solar PV system and its generating capability – smaller systems pay higher rates per kWh – and are based on a set amount determined by the government. That rate can change over time for new people coming into the system, but once you’ve been registered in the FiTs at a specific rate, the government guarantees that they’ll pay you at that rate for the next 25 years.

Currently, the FiTs pays out 43.3p for every kWh of electricity generated by solar PV systems rated at less than 400 kWh, a classification that includes most home solar PV systems. The Department of Energy and Climate Change has already announced a drop in the tariff to take effect sometime in the near future – it was meant to take effect on December 12 but has been successfully challenged in court. The new rate, when it takes effect, will be just over 21p per kWh – significantly less, but still enough to pay most property owners back the entire cost of installing solar panels within 10 years, leaving 15 years of payments as pure profits for anyone installing a solar PV system on their roofs.

While solar paint may be some years in the distant future, solar panels are here and better than ever. The typical solar PV system can generate up to 50 percent of the electricity needed by most households.