Indoor Solar Cells? A 500 Megawatt Proposal May 4, 2010

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Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2010/04/21/Beyond_Sunny_Memories

Howard Clearfield, CTO of G24 Innovations, discusses potential applications of dye-sensitized solar cells. Since these cells operate indoors, Clearfield explains using the technology with indoor devices that draw standby power, like televisions, would take over 500 megawatts of electricity off the grid.

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Finding economic ways to capture and convert energy from our largest renewable energy source, the sun, is becoming more urgent as the worlds supply of fossil fuels vanishes. Now, the development of a new generation of solar cells might lead the way toward a better future.

Graetzel cells, named for Professor Michael Graetzel of the Ecole Polytechnique federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, are dye-sensitized solar cells that are thin, flexible, and come in many shapes and colors, allowing them to answer different functional needs. Inspired by plant photosynthesis, they use dyes to transform sunlight into electricity. - swissnex San Francisco

Howard M. Clearfield is the Chief Technology Officer at G24 Innovations, Ltd., a personalized solar energy start-up company specializing in flexible dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC). His solar energy experience includes positions at OptiSolar, Inc. as Director of Product Development, and at The Dow Chemical Company, where he installed at 210 kW solar farm that has produced over 750 MW-hr of renewable energy. Prior to entering the solar energy field, Clearfield was Global Leader of Technical Services and Applications Development for Dow's LUMATION* Light-Emitting Polymers (LEPs). His group's responsibilities included strategic marketing, customer technical support, and development/transfer of industrial ink processing techniques.