Q: Which industry will switch to alternative energy as their primary source within the next 1-2 years?
By Franky So, inventor and chief technology officer, NextGen Nano
The transport sector is the fastest growing contributor to climate emissions. Following a more aggressive push by governments on automakers to bring about change and reduce emissions, companies like Volvo, Nissan, and BMW have committed to making their portfolios either fully-electric or pledged to invest in the development of ‘new-energy vehicles’ like solar electric vehicles (solar-EVs).
For years, solar photovoltaic cells have suffered from problems with efficiency, durability, and cost. Part of the problem is to do with silicon, the semiconductor material traditionally used to turn the sun’s energy into electricity. Commercial solar panels using silicon are typically brittle, expensive, and cumbersome, at best generating energy with around 15 to 17 percent efficiency.
Recent breakthroughs in new organic semiconductors mean we can now produce the next generation of solar panels with better efficiency and stability. The beauty of this breakthrough is that these cells can be used to make flexible and semi-transparent solar panels that can be designed to fit virtually any application including the delicate contours of an electric vehicle.
The polymer solar cells (PSCs), however, work by sandwiching an organic mixture of Earth friendly biopolymers between two electrodes to form a conductive layer that produces energy efficiently at a far lower cost than existing silicon-based technology.
Many people forget that, while EVs are clean at the point of use, they depend on electricity from the grid that is still produced from fossil fuels. It is for this reason we expect further and drastic changes in how the transport industry is fueled in the coming years.