This may be the breakthrough the renewables industry needs
Scientists invent spray-on battery - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

When conbined with the technology of Australian company dyesol this would provide a solar collector as thin as the layers of paint capable of storing energy which would mean we will see future buildings as solar collectors providing their own power. This opens the way to true distributed power production and the passing of the poles and wires distribution model which clutters our cities and charges extortinate rates for its product. Early days yet

No one interested in breakthroughs?

Not much to say. Here's hoping .

Hello tom:

Didja see where it was PUBLIC expenditures of money that caused this breakthrough?? According to you, it should have NEVER happened. You said stuff like you can't MAKE technology DO what technology ISN'T going to do, or something like that. Or at least you should NEVER spend taxpayer money on trying to make breakthroughs..

Isn't that what you said??

excon

No I don't think I did .In fact I've never opposed government funding for science.Nor did I read anywhere in the article that it was government funded research at the University .

What I have been opposed to is the government deciding that this innovation will replace existing technology BEFORE it is even invented. I've been opposed to subsidies that favor one technology over the other .
All you need to see is this nonsense about cellulosic ethanol that Bush started ;and Obama doubled down on. Now we have the EPA fining refiners for not using a mixture that not only hasn't been invented yet ;but also has little chance of success.

Hello again, tom:

Government funds the UNIVERSITY. That's government funded research in anybody's book.

excon

Sorry EX... Rice University is a private funded research University. In fact ,it is named after William Marsh Rice... one of those 1% rich guys that used to be called 'robber baron'.
In 1891, Rice decided to charter a free-tuition educational institute in Houston, bearing his name, to be created upon his death, earmarking most of his estate towards funding the project. It has become one of the top private funded research campuses in the nation.

Hello again, tom:

And, the government doesn't guarantee the loans for their student body to attend.. Right...

excon

Nit picking.. btw , I actually looked up the funding for the project . There is some grant funding through NSF ,and the Army Research Laboratories ;along with private grants from those evil oil corporations like Shell ,BP,Halliburton ,Petrobas ,Conoco Phillips ,Schumbergers ,and Total all through the Advanced Energy Consortium ,and Nanoholdings Inc.

What does it matter where the funding came from, the thing is it has achieved a result which wedded to the right technology make solar energy far more viable than it is

Doesn't matter to me.. I already said I have no problem with government grants for science. I am glad the military is involved because I can certainly see applications there.

Too often our government jumps the gun.. It's one thing to fund science. It's quite another to waste a fortune trying to alter the market with a technology that is clearly not ready yet.

As an example. Washington D C area has been in the dark for 3 days now . Imagine if your means of transportation was the plug in electric car .

And yet this is the way of the future, but no matter with this new technology wedded to the electricity generating paint your car will produce its own power, providing of course you get some sunlight and your house will produce and store its own power. You could have course do this right now with more cumbersome means. I can see these products disappearing ito the bowels of some untility corporation

Yeah of course a company would suppress new technology . Why would they want to be on the cutting edge ? Take off the tin foil hat.
BTW ,the reseachers were quick to trade mark

Tom patents and trade marks don't assure development beyond the research stage, look at the Sarich engine, never was commercially exploited because the auto companies had too much invested in their engine plants. Hydrolosis was talked of for years but still hasn't seen the light of day, both of these technologies would do a great deal to reduce emissions but we still fiddle around modifying existing technologies

This is something of dreams and dreams alone. It sounds good but it will never happen. There will always be a need for some kind of supplement power. An electric motor can be highly efficient but where the greatest loss occurs is achieving speed. Maintaining speed the usage is much lower. But it's the getting there that is tough. It takes a tremendous amount of power to get up to speed. Also as far as for homes being "painted" for electrical storage you still will need supplemental power like wind for the times when there is cloudy skies and snow. There are current technologies out there already and time proven methods that could allow an electric car to travel extreme distances without stopping. But that would take a physical change in the way roads are designed. So far no entity is willing to step forward and make the investment.

Dad I know we need base load power and may need it for the foreseeable future, wind has limited application unless you live in a very windy place, it is not an answer for urban living, but there are problems to be solved and one of them is making electric cars with longer life. I'm not speaking about some form of "trolley car" connected to the grid while running although it is a possibility. Solar fails because there is no storage, this innovation goes part of the way to solving that.one of the main urban loads is refrigeration based on an electric motor but there are other forms of refrigeration, absorption refrigeration where there isn't a need for that electric motor, this also needs to be developed. Some of us live in a climate where these things are feasible, but we can't wait for the northern hemisphere to decide they have a problem, that they no longer need those dinosaurs they call autos, that there are other ways of doing things

So why wasn't it developed in a Sydney U ? Need creates demand no ? All I know is I'd be up the creek without a paddle if I was was driving a plug in electric in Washington DC this week.

well Tom as I said in the original piece one half of the equation was an Australian innovation a paint that generates electricity the other half american, we don't hold all the patients on innovative thinking, just some of them and Tom I never said the solution was a plugin at least not without a standby generator or another form of charging up

The purpose of wind is only to supplement / compliment other forms of green electricity. Take for example a home painted with that new substance (your battery) and add to it a rooftop made of sheets of solar cells. It's a good combination for daytime use. But as we all know there is a nighttime. That is where wind comes in. All the excess electricity created can go back to the "battery" and anything above that goes back into the grid.

You don't need a trolly system for cars to generate their own electricity. You can do it with the correct road surface. Yes I said it. The idea being that an alternator goes round and round a magnetic field to create electricity. You can also create it in a straight line too. That way the cars driving over it generate their own electricity while driving and have battery backup for acceleration as well as for street level driving.

All you have to do is create more charge then you are using at highway speed and you have enough to charge the battery while you drive. The physical weight of the car is what carries it from one magnet to the next. The charge occurs when your passing over the magnet. And when you encounter a downhill slope you can use regenerative braking for slowing the car and store that electricity too. For the larger trucks they could have supplemental power for every trailer they have connected. That way the extra weight can go uphill when needed and then run free when on level stretches.

Sounds great where can we get one