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[[patent pending - a video podcast series from GE]]
[Greetings, my name is Vlatko Vlatkovic.]
[I run the electronics and energy conversion lab here at the GE Research Center.]
[We're on the roof of one of our research buildings here in Niskayuna, New York.]
[And this is our solar panel test setup.]
[It's a great day to talk about generating electricity from sunlight, ]
[and here is a silicon solar cell.]
[The sun sends about a thousand watts per square meter]
[to the Earth every time it shines, all right?]
[We can use silicon solar cells to make electricity directly from the sun's energy.]
[The sunlight hits the silicon, the blue surface here, ]
[and the impact creates a free electron in the silicon, ]
[and that electron is collected by these aluminum traces here,]
[and then connected together with the rest of the silicon cells,]
[and then used in your house as electricity.]
[Now, this is a very nice idea, but today it's still quite expensive to do this.]
[The electricity from silicon solar cells is almost 3 times as expensive]
[as what you pay for in your utility.]
[So the challenge for us is to do research and come up with technologies ]
[that significantly reduce the cost of making electricity from sunlight.]
[And so here is one example, right?]
[We've been doing research on different types of silicon, ]
[and different ways of processing silicon,]
[and this solar cell looks very similar to the one I've shown you.]
[Actually, it produces almost the same amount of electricity as the big one,]
[so this one is twice as efficient as the big one.]
[And so, you see, it uses half as much material, so we roughly cut the cost in half.]
[It's a very interesting idea.]
[We're looking at some advanced research in nanotechnology that will cut the size]
[and the cost of these cells further by a factor of 2 in the future.]
[Now, the next question is, the solar cells are a little bit rigid.]
[They come in these boxes that you put on the roof,]
[and they don't integrate very well in the house.]
[Our goal is really to come up with technology that seamlessly integrates]
[with the house and with the building, and so here is an example.]
[Imagine if you could make these cells a little flexible. ]
[And here is a little example of that,]
[some electronics on a flexible substrate.]
[If you had a cell like this, you could really make a shingle out of it.]
[You could make it very simple. ]
[You could make it of a satin material, and so we can come up with techniques]
[that really seamlessly integrate all of this power generation from solar]
[with the house that you're building, all right?]
[So overall, we believe that the solar technology is really here.]
[In the next 5 to 10 years, we foresee the future in which 10%, 15%, even 20%]
[of our electricity in the country will be generated from solar energy,]
[directly in a very nice, very clean way; and it will be very nice to look at.]
[It will be seamlessly integrated in the house, and you will have buildings]
[that in addition to providing shelter, also provide electricity ]
[and clean energy for the house.]
[My name is Vlatko Vlatkovic, I am the manager of the electronics and energy conversion lab.]
[We work on wind, we work on solar, we work on renewable energy.]
[I think the technology that we work on will contribute significantly ]
[to the environment, to the well-being of the country,]
