A nanometer is one billionth of a meter and scientists at the University of Toronto in January, 2005 announced the creation of a new spray-on solar panel technology using particles of this size. These particles, called 'Quantum Dots', with a width of about three or four nanometers, can be combined with a polymer to capture the longer wavelengths of light in the infrared spectrum to produce electricity. 

Conventional solar panels capture and convert energy into DC from the visible light spectrum - not infrared, so this development taps into an entirely new source of energy, which could possibly produce efficiencies that are 5 times that of today's existing technology. The ability to literally spray it on to a deck raises the possibility of converting all the exposed areas on your boat into a giant solar panel!

Scientists predict that this technology could be available within five years because the production techniques do not require clean rooms and vacuum systems that the current silicon wafer technologies require during the manufacturing process. 

This development has implications that reach far beyond boating applications. Ted Sargent, a computer and electrical engineering professor at the University of Toronto (one of the scientists that invented the Quantum Dot approach to solar conversion), said "The sun that reaches the Earth's surface delivers 10,000 times more energy than we consume. If we could cover 0.1 percent of the Earth's surface with large-area solar cells, we could in principle replace all of our energy habits with a source of power which is clean and renewable." 

Furthermore, this Quantum Dot polymer can be woven into fabrics, raising the possibility of having truly portable electronics, like a cellphone charged directly on your body from sources of infrared radiation (i.e. heat).

This is good news at a time when we know that oil supplies are a dwindling commodity, not to mention the adverse political and environmental impacts of fossil fuels. 

 

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Quantum dots are semiconductor crystals that range typically between 1 and 10 nanometers in diameter and have unique properties between that of single molecules and bulk materials. Quantum dots offer tunable optical and electronic properties that can work around natural limits inherent in traditional semiconductors. Solar power is only one of the many ways this new technology can be utilized - for example, a new generation of super high efficiency LED lighting systems will soon be available.

Our Navitrol system has been designed to run primarily on solar power, and we will be following and reporting on this technology with keen interest as it develops.