The advantages of solar panels are known by almost everyone nowadays. They are one of the most environmentally friendly ways of supplying electricity and are economically efficient. However, manufacturing solar panels is not has green as it could be. There is a dark side to their creation process. Researchers in Sweden have tackled this issue by coming up with a wooden-solar panel.
What are the usual materials used for making solar panels?
Researchers at Linköping University and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Sweden working on even more ecologically viable solution for solving the issue of panel manufacturing and they have come up with an innovative response for creating even more eco friendly solar panels.
The whole idea behind solar cells is that they help reduce pollution. It is true that solar panels contaminate much less than other forms of energy. However, this doesn’t mind that they have zero impact on the environment. Silicon is one of the elements that go into manufacturing solar panels and the process of making them is elaborate and could produce toxic spills.
Due to this hazardous possibility, researchers are looking into organic solar panels. They are cheap to make, light and flexible. However, there is a catch. They are manufactured using plastic or oil polymers. So, the adjective “organic” is a bit misleading, since they aren’t positive ecologically.
Wooden-solar panels: The key to making panels more sustainable
With the aim of making the manufacturing of panels more sustainable, Sweden is determined to transform the solar cell business with the introduction of a wooden-solar panel. Researchers at Linköping University and KTH are working with a material called kraft lignin, which is obtained from wood pulp.
They have managed to use this wooden material to make a small portion of the solar panel, but their aim to use wood to make the whole solar panel.
“We have created a material, or composite, from kraft lignin which is to constitute the cathode interface layer. It turned out that this made the solar cell more stable. The advantage of kraft lignin is that it has the ability to create many hydrogen bonds, which helps to stabilize the solar cell,” explained Qilun Zhang, main research engineer at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics (LOE) at Linköping University.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of wooden-solar panels?
Wooden-solar panels enjoys all the benefits of a solar panel with the added incentive of having a cleaner manufacturing process. Additionally, they are more reliable and cheaper than regular solar panels. One of the major drawbacks of regular solar panels is that when their lifespan has expired, they are very polluting in terms of waste.
The drawback of wooden solar cells is that their efficiency will never match that of a solar panel. However, Swedish researchers are not worried about that. They are confident that 20% efficiency is enough for the purposes they serve.
Another drawback is, of course, deforestation. We have been hearing about this man made catastrophe for decades now. If Sweden starts cutting trees to make solar panels, whatever advantage is gained by creating a wood photovoltaic cell would be completely made redundant by the fact that deforestation is taking place for us to have these wooden panels.
Wooden solar panels will enable the whole system of solar panel manufacturing to be simpler, cleaner and greener. As a result, solar panels would become almost in their entirety eco-friendly. Sweden is determined to make wooden solar cells happen, they have started transforming a small part of the structure of a solar cell, but are sure to achieve greatness in terms of renewable energy.