Beyond today: my wish list #2

This is my #wishlist of shiny new stuff I would like to have in the near future in no particular order of preference.

If men could wish, the world would be a paradise.

Daylight photovoltaic cells

This is perhaps a wish that is closer to the Holy Grail than my others. This would certainly be a game changer and would finally cause all the big energy companies to go bust. I would celebrate the day.

I’m talking about photovoltaic cells capable of outperforming solar panels as we currently know them. Conventional solar panels perform best under direct sunlight in order to maximise their power conversion; that is my understanding. Whilst they do work under diffused light (cloudy days), the diffusion reduces their conversion rate. There are some claims which argue that solar panels reach optimum performance in low temperatures, but whatever; good luck with that.

I would like something like those tiny Casio calculator “solar panels” which can work under artificial light. But which are capable of (a) generating copious amounts of energy, and (b) can be placed in every conceivable space to harvest baby, harvest. Roof tiles, bricks, cladding, gutters, paving, door knobs even; anything with exposure to a tiny sliver of daylight.

Better still, how about just one super-efficient solar panel capable of generating enough electricity to power an entire home for a week with energy harvested on a completely overcast and rainy day? Where would all that energy be stored?

Super capacitors

We really need to wean ourselves off NiMH, Li-Ion and LiPo chemical storage, and the world really should have moved away from chemical-based batteries by now. We must have that super capacitor, capable of storing energy beyond our wildest dreams. This is another Holy Grail. Progress towards this is slow, but we are getting there. For example, there are Lithium-Ion capacitors now, which edge us that bit closer.

I wish a viable alternative such as a true super capacitor battery existed. It would be able to hold on to all that energy until we needed it. I would love to have a suitcase-size super capacitor battery in the basement or the loft which has a 1 MWh capacity and gets topped-up by one ultra-efficient solar panel. I would never have to pay another electricity bill again, ever.

Perpetual energy machine

Let me stick with the Holy Grail theme here for a minute, indulge me. YouTube is crammed with videos of perpetual motion machines which inevitably get debunked on MythBusters. But this is THE dream. Imagine it. A windmill-type spinning device in your back garden that just needs a push to get started and it keeps rotating for ever. A real-time electricity generating contraption like the bicycle headlamp dynamos from yesteryear but on a grander scale.

What’s not to love? I want one.