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Well
this stuff just keeps getting better. Yesterday I was reading about
molybdenum and I found out that moly could be the key to the future of clean
energy reliance. A couple of scientists found that it could be used to create
energy. The best part is that there is no carbon footprint; it extracts
hydrogen atoms from oxygen atoms by using sunlight as the power source.
While
the vast majority of molybdenum is used as an alloying agent in steel
production, many new markets for the metal are starting to be discovered.
Molybdenum is being used in new CIGS (copper indium gallium selenide) solar
panels that are revolutionizing the solar industry. All of these ores are
rare earth elements.
It was
just announced that a group of Swiss scientists from Empa, the Swiss Federal
Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology have broken an energy
conversion efficiency record for flexible thin-filmphotovoltaic technology called CIGS
solar cells. In collaboration with the Swiss solar start-up company,Flisom, Empa has achieved an 18.7 % efficiency for CIGS flexible solar
cells, which the lab says was made possible by mounting them on a polymer
substrate. According to the lab this broke the record of 17.6 % when mounting
the CIGS on steel foil substrates.
Solar efficiency is the amount of electricity
per square inch that can be gleaned from a solar cell. While traditional
silicon cells are generally more efficient that CIGS cells, CIGS cells have
some distinct advantages.
Flexible CIGS can be made by roll-to-roll
processing which means the cells are "printed" or patterned on
giant rolls of flexible material, which makes them less expensive to
manufacture than traditional cells. Because CIGS can be made flexible and are
generally lighter than silicon panels, they offer more options on how they
can be installed (like roof shingles), what kind of frames or supports are
needed and finally they are much less expensive to ship.
It's all
about the money. To make solar electricity affordable on a large scale,
scientists and engineers worldwide have long been trying to develop a
low-cost solar cell, which is both highly efficient and easy to manufacture
with high throughput. Now a team at Empa's Laboratory for Thin Film and
Photovoltaic’s, has made a major step forward. "The new record
value for flexible CIGS solar cells of 18.7% nearly closes the
"efficiency gap.” He is convinced that flexible and lightweight
CIGS solar cells will have excellent potential to bring about a paradigm
shift and to enable low-cost solar electricity in the near future."
These panels are thin and flexible, so
flexible that they are now making roofing shingles out of them. Imagine
putting a roof on your house that would make your home energy independent. On a much larger scale we are
talking about the ability to lower costs of electrical generation
dramatically. As such, CIGS photovoltaic systems are starting to take off.
Moly’s uses in new energy applications only starts to begin here.
The
newest and most promising technology, with breakthroughs from researchers at
multiple universities, is hydrogen power generation. Traditionally, pure
hydrogen is created through two methods. The first is to separate hydrogen
from methane and hydrocarbons. This method is counterproductive to
‘clean energy’ simply because the burning of methane to create
energy is more efficient than using the hydrogen that is separated from it.
The second method is to separate hydrogen
atoms from oxygen atoms in water, through a method called electrolysis. In
existing electrolysis systems the electrical current is run through a platinum electrode.
However, platinum is an extremely expensive metal, and currently valued at
$1768.00 per ounce. The use of platinum to economically produce hydrogen is a
pipe dream. However, molybdenum may revolutionize what some call the “hydrogen economy.”
Researchers at UC Berkeley, as well Swiss scientists at EPFL, are
developing molybdenum as a substitute for platinum electrodes. At 70 times
cheaper than platinum, molybdenum is rising as an alternative that can
perform in either dirty water or salt water. “Our catalyst does
not require organic additives, and can operate in neutral water, even if it
is dirty, and can operate in sea water, the most abundant source of hydrogen
on earth and a natural electrolyte. These qualities make our catalyst ideal
for renewable energy.
The use of molybdenum in various nano-technologies
was covered on Moly Investing News in February. The nano-technology that employs molybdenum in high
tech products could make computers smaller, faster and more efficient. There
are even inventions where molybdenum nanotech could capture lost heat energy
in gas and coal fired power plants which lose 50-70 percent of the energy
produced in the form of heat.
Undoubtedly
this technology is still far from becoming a household reality. In the case
of sunlight powered hydrogen generation, they are looking for other catalyst
materials to further reduce costs. However, many breakthroughs using
molybdenum provide moly with new, diversified markets that could add
significant amounts of demand.
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