Mobile phones change design of solar panels
Engineers are already redesigning solar panels to pre-empt a shortage of precious elements fuelled by our insatiable demand for personal technology such as mobile phones.
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Indium is a highly conductive precious element that, when used in the form of indium tin oxide, becomes transparent, adheres strongly to glass and resists corrosion. As such, it plays a crucial role in allowing solar panels to generate energy from the sun, also enabling more flexible designs for most advantageous placement in certain areas.
But it is also crucial in the design of touchscreens for mobile phones – of which billions are sold every year.
With demand for mobiles increasing and recycling almost non-existent, solar panel manufacturers have been quick to look for alternatives – and avoid yet more pressure on a supply chain already stretched by a microchip shortage.
Dr Matthew Davies is the Associate Professor in Materials Engineering and head of the Applied Photochemistry Group at the SPECIFIC IKC, Swansea University. He believes it won’t be the last time engineers will have to find new substitutes for other components – unless recycling techniques and product design improve dramatically.
He said: "If we don’t start seeing materials and waste as a resource that’s inherently viable, there’s no sustainable future and no shortage of problems. We extract 100 billion tonnes of materials per year. We’re only recycling 8.6% of that – and that’s dropped from 9.1% two years ago.
"No matter how efficient we are at recycling, if we don’t design products in a better manner for reuse and recovery at the end of their product life, we’ll run out of everything.
"For example, indium is a crucial part of your mobile phone’s touch-screen, but it’s also useful for solar cells. There’s only so much of a supply though and renewables aren’t going to beat the demand of mobile phones – so we’ve already planned for future solar cells to be indium-free.
"Instead of indium tin oxide, we’re now using fluorine tin oxide. While it means we can still make solar cells, without indium it limits our choice on the flexibility of these cells.
"As time moves on, we are seeing more material challenges, more materials that we need to substitute and this is not always as straight forward as the indium case. The biggest fear is that we will have renewable and energy efficient products, all needed to mitigate climate change, competing for materials, thus limiting deployment.
"As consumers, the power lies with us though – we have to vote with our wallets and choose to buy products built with remanufacturing, repair and upgradeability in mind."
When it comes to recyclable design, Dr Davis is something of an expert, with his team developing so-called Active Buildings, that generate their own energy.
Crucially, they’re designed using off-site construction methods – with the houses assembled in place later. Because they’re modular, the houses can be easily rebuilt elsewhere – and components can be easily replaced if broken or in need of an upgrade.
"We need to change the way we see and use materials. There’s inherently a massive benefit in doing that. We know it can be done, the tech exists. We’ve proved it with the Active Buildings. Now we need to shift the onus back to the manufacturers."