by When the summer temperatures in Osaka, Japan, closer to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, the Expo 2025 employees hit the heat with supply vests that are powered by the sun.
In collaboration with solar cell startup enencoat technologies and textile manufacturers, developed by Toyoda Gosei Toyoda Gosei, the supply vests are equipped with ultra-thin, flexible solar collectors, each of which is less than four grams of weighing light more than a single sheet of paper and power neck fans to keep the change cooling cooling.
These solar “films” are not like the silicon panels installed on roofs or solar parks, which today identify 98% of the solar market. Instead, they consist of Perovskites, a family of crystals that share the same characteristic structure.
Perovskit solar cells are lighter, cheaper to produce and can be coordinated to absorb a wider light area, including more visible and almost infrared. They can even be accused of “under shade, in rainy and cloudy weather”, says Shinichiro Fuki, director of the Toyoda Gosei team behind the vest.
The Perovskit solar modules lower a mobile battery and a personal neck fan. – Dan Campisi/CNN
In the laboratory, the solar film of ENECOAT has achieved 21.2% efficiency, which means that around a fifth of solar energy is converted into electricity. Now it is tested on the Expo under real conditions.
The team collects data daily on how to respond to different climate conditions such as solar radiation and temperature as well as the performance of the mobile battery with which it is connected to, which is expected to be fully charged in five to 10 hours.
According to Fuki, the project is a “first initiative worldwide” to integrate perovskit solar cells into wearables. “We hope that people who work in an environment in which they cannot easily get electricity without solar energy use and wear them,” he adds.
Low-light solar
The Staff Utility vests are tested throughout the Expo 2025. – Dan Campisi/CNN
Perovskites can be produced in nature or in a laboratory, and their use in solar cells was first demonstrated by researchers in Japan in 2009.
In the laboratory environments, perovskite have efficiency of electricity bills of more than 26% achievement-as high as the best silicon solar modules that have almost reached their efficiency limit.
One of the biggest advantages of perovskites is their ability to “generate electricity or in poor lighting conditions,” says Tamotsu Horiuchi, Director and Chief Technology Officer at Enecoat Technologies.
“If the lights of LEDs, fluorescent lights or similar lights are used internally instead of sunlight to generate electricity,” says Horiuchi. And because they are more flexible and light than silicon panels, “we can also install solar modules in places where it was impossible before”, he adds – like roofs that cannot support silicon solar collectors that can weigh up to around 50 pounds (23 kilograms).
The West are not the only demonstration of perovskites on the Expo: The Polish company Saube Technologies has used curved solar cells in “intelligent poles”, the street lights, surveillance cameras, digital signs and wireless charges and the Japanese company Sekisui Chemical demonstrates like a levy on the roof of the event bus.
In the Panasonic Group pavilion, Perovskit -solar cells between glass layers were converted into an artistic facade to ensure an additional durability in order to present the aesthetic potential of the technology.
“The current (silicone) solar modules are difficult to install in our living space,” says Yoshiteru Hara, technical director of the Panasonic Pavilion at the Expo 2025 Osaka. “We have to produce a balance between design and efficiency of electricity generation.”
The Panasonic Group Pavilion imagines future cities that are integrated into light perovskit sun collectors. – Dan Campisi/CNN
Perovskit solar cells with this “intelligent” pole on Expo 2025. – Dan Campisi/CNN
High performance ship, short -lived
Japan invests strongly in Perovskite technology to achieve ambitious goals, to generate 20 gigawatt solar energy by 2040, the equivalent force generated by around 20 nuclear power plants. The nation is the second largest iodine producer in the world, an important part of perovskites, and the mountainous area of the country limits the potential development of traditional solar parks that require huge amounts of flat land.
Despite the advantages, perovskite worsen faster than silicon if they are exposed to heat, moisture or UV rays and lose efficiency in a few years, months or even weeks.
“Everyone is currently working on stability: this is the only thing that is missing and still do not have perovskites compared to silicon,” says Dr. Hashini Perera, a postgraduate research scholarship holder at the Advanced Technology Institute of the University of Surrey, where she studies perovskites.
Researchers examine various ways of making perovskite more durable, e.g. B. adding “stabilizing active ingredients” or the wrapping of the film in protective layers such as Glass, says Perera, whose recent research discovered a method that could increase the lifespan of the material ten times.
Another challenge of Perovskites is that they contain lead, which is poisonous. Studies have shown that if this is damaged, this could be an environmental risk, but Perera says that the potential for lead ceiling is very low, especially with robust capsule methods.
While solar cells that only use Perovskite, possibly have a long way to commercialize, it already improves existing panels: Last year, Oxford PV, a company that runs out the Department of Physics at Oxford University, has launched the first commercial Perowskit-Silicon-Tandem Panels in the USA and delivered up to 20% more energy than Standalon silicone cells.
“It’s a massive step forward for Perovskite,” says Perera.
The ability of Perovskit to bring energy generation into urban areas, which is closer to the place where it is used, will make future cities more efficient, says Horiuchi, Chief Technology Officer at Enecoat.
“It is more effective to use the electricity that is generated right there (on site) to supply the building itself,” says Horiuchi, adding: “The same applies to clothing. I think the best way to use it is … on a smartwatch or your smartphone. I think it would be good to develop it in this way.”
Additional reporting from Yumi Asada, CNN.
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