Nanotechnology – A Sandwich Without the Beef? (Part One)

The ability of nanotechnologies to deliver cost-effective renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions has come under attack in a recently released report by the environmental campaigning organisation Friends of the Earth.

The nano technology industry has over-promised and under-delivered, according to the report. The performance of nano-based renewables has been considerably less than predicted. Efficiency of solar energy conversion by nano solar panels is still about 10% behind that achieved by silicon panels, while the energy and environmental costs of the  nanotechnology industry are far higher than expected.

In the solar market, thin film nano solar gained a price advantage over traditional silicon solar modules because of automated production methods and the flexibility in use. But that price gap has been eroding as the price of silicon has dropped. Massive investment by the Chinese government to expand significantly its solar production has helped drive the price of solar panels down 40 percent in the past year.

In their October 2010 price review, market analysts Solarbuzz found that the lowest retail price for a multi-crystalline silicon solar module was $1.97 per watt from a US retailer. The lowest retail price for a mono-crystalline silicon module was $2.21 per watt from a German retailer. The lowest thin film module price was $1.40 per watt from a US-based retailer (Solarbuzz does make the point that technical attributes and prices are variable).

The report argues that the longer life of traditional silicon solar may make it a better value over the whole life of both products. Although nano-proponents hope that in the future nanotechnology will deliver higher efficiency solar panels than silicon panels, to date the efficiency of nano solar panels is considerably less than that of traditional silicon panels. The report cites Dutch researchers who argue that because thin film nano solar requires rare  minerals such as indium and gallium, these technologies will never be able to contribute more than 2% of global energy demand, due to resource constraints. Friends of the Earth concede that there are few lifecycle analyses available for PV solar systems.

The cost of commercializing a nanotechnology that looks very exciting in the laboratory is prohibitive, says the report. Most nanoproducts take a large quantity of energy to produce, while offering no environmental savings, as nanomanufacturing is characterised by very high use of water and solvents, and large quantities of hazardous substances are used or generated as byproducts. Only one tenth of 1% of materials used to manufacture nanoproducts for electronics are contained in the final products. The remaining 99.9% of materials becomes waste.

And the role that nanotechnology in delivering environmental solutions is overplayed. The United States President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology states that in 2009 only one percent of global nanotechnology-based products came from the energy and environmental sector.  The much-touted nano developments in the hydrogen sector are at a very early stage. It is improbable that cars powered by renewable energy generated hydrogen (as opposed to fossil fuel generated hydrogen) will be on the roads in the next 10 or 20 years. In other words, development of a mass market for hydrogen fuel vehicles may actually reinforce our reliance on fossil fuels.