Episode 32.
What's solar powered paint?

Question:

Key Points:

• The sun provides both heat and light, both of which have been used as it comes from the sun "forever"
• The first time, on record, of storing energy from the sun was back in ancient Egypt: their houses were designed to store heat during the day and release the heat into house during the night
• Back in ancient Greece, they used large mirrors, which looked kinda like satelite dishes, to focus the heat energy from the sun. These would then be used to catch an enemy's wooden ships on fire.
• Back in 1872, Will Smith (no not that Will Smith) discovered a "photelectric" effect on Selenium.
• We now know that this same effect, which today we call the photovoltaic effect, also happens with silicon.
• Photons are the really small "pieces" of light. Millions of photons are produced by a single light in just a small fraction of a second.
• In a normal molecule, there are the same number of electrons as protons, but when a photon hits silicon, it can knock off an electron.
• The silicon atoms can be arranged in a way to make the electrons all flow in the same direction, which means it is generating electricity, specifically direct current.
• The electricity from the power company comes into your house via alternating current, not direct current
• So, if we want to use solar power in our house, we need to convert it from direct current into alternating current, which means some energy is lost as heat.
• One potential improvement to solar power is to create a "solar powered paint", which allows for a paint which collects energy
• One current version of solar powered paint essentially does electrolisis, which is where energy "blows up" water molecules
• Water is "H20", which means 2 Hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atoms. So, 2 water molecules can become 2 hydrogen molecules (H2) and 1 oxygen molecule (O2)
• The hope is that some day, the hydrogen that is obtained via electrolysis from the paint could be collected and used for creating power, such as for a fuel cell vehicle
• Net metering allows for people with solar panels on their house to not have to have batteries: just push energy into the grid.