01/10/2016 Click - Short Edition


01/10/2016

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It's a huge ball of energy just waiting to be tapped.

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Banks of solar cells are springing up all over the place,

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absorbing the sunlight and turning it into electricity.

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I've come to Oxford University to meet Professor Henry Snaith,

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who's trying to squeeze more and more energy out of the sun.

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Current technology based on silicon is fundamentally limited in terms

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Silicon can only absorb a fixed band of light,

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a fixed spectrum of light - it absorbs all the visible

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and the infrared light and then converts that into electricity.

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They've been developed for about the last 60 years,

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and the maximum efficiency is about 25%.

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The trick is to use different materials, alongside silicon,

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Henry's team are investing ways of coating the silicon cells

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with a crystalline structure called perovskite, which can convert more

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energy from different wavelengths of light and can generate

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electricity at a surprisingly high voltage.

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At the moment, we're right on the cusp in most places,

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or lots of places in the world, where we can produce electricity

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from solar cells as cheaply as we can from coal.

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So if we now increase the efficiency, it will become

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cheaper and cheaper and cheaper to produce electricity

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Solar energy could deliver the sort of transformative change in society

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as we saw at the turn of the 20th century with the discovery

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Henry and his team are still near the beginning of that journey.

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His perovskite-coated solar cells are still climbing

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towards an efficiency of 25%, which will match the current

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It doesn't sound like much, but efficiency in the high 20%s is

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There is a group of young researchers in Switzerland

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who are pushing solar technology even further.

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And Dan Simmons has been to meet them.

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These guys want to change the world by shaping light.

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You see, their plan is to make a solar panel that doesn't just

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offer a tiny bit more energy than the last one -

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that's been happening for decades - but one that can deliver a seismic

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leap and push out almost twice the energy of

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The trick is not about coming up with better photovoltaic materials -

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They're focusing on the light itself.

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So we are using a lens which is basically a magnifying

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glass, but with a very particular shape, so that we can track the sun

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throughout the day with minuscule displacements, so the stroke of it.

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We are just moving laterally by a couple of millimetres per day,

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so it's a very slow movement, and it doesn't consume any energy,

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Now, the guys have set this up moving a little bit quicker

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In fact, the whole panel would move about one centimetre in a day,

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And to do that, it would use less than 1% of the actual

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The other advantage of this system is, because the movement

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is so small, it can be housed in a normal solar-panel frame,

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so you can put it up on rooftops with minimal maintenance.

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Which is kind of unusual for a tracking solar-panel system.

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The first independent lab test earlier this month measured

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an efficiency rating that would be off the charts for residential solar

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We realised that this might be the most efficient flat panel

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in the world, and we realised the importance of keeping...

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As well as the optics, the other trick these guys

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are using is to make use of the most expensive and efficient

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Satellites get their power from the sun, and these panels cost

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That is far too expensive to use down here.

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It would take decades to get your money back.

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But because the system concentrates the incoming light,

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just look at how big an area now needs to be covered.

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It's just those seven tiny black dots on this panel.

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With world-class materials and low-cost maintenance,

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the guys are aiming for the system to pay for itself

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I asked a solar expert who's been in the industry for over 20 years.

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Many pundits are saying that even with the kind of incremental

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increases in efficiency that we've in recent years, solar

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is heading for a place in the mainstream of global energy,

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even as a backbone of global energy, possibly, you know, in as short

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a period as a couple of decades from now.

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When you have moving parts, you have a large number of other

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I very much hope that they solve it and come up with the first

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concentrator, moving concentrator, and do deliver this step function,

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because that would be very much the icing on the cake.

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It seems the solar revolution is coming.

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Battery and panel prices have been tumbling, while consumers

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are warming to electric vehicles that could be used

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Fossil fuels could finally be facing extinction, and this focus -

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from the Magnificent Seven - could serve to speed that up.

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Hello and welcome to the week in tech.

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It was the week that BlackBerry announced they would no longer

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The one-time market leader has struggled to keep pace

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with the serious sales of Apple and Samsung handsets.

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A spoof video got people doing something seriously daft.

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Drilling into your iPhone 7 will not bring back the old headphones jack.

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And Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft announced

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they will collaborate to create some serious artificial intelligence.

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The Partnership on AI hopes to create the best ways of dealing

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with issues like privacy, transparency, and how man

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In other news, US Girl Scouts can earn a new badge

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Women in Games International have teamed up with the Girl Scouts

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of Los Angeles to hold sessions at PlayStation's

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It'll teach them how to develop their video-gaming

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talents in the hope more girls will seek opportunities

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And, finally, you can't teach an old robot new tricks.

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Pepper the robot has been learning to catch a ball in a cup.

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It may have taken a while, but after 100 tries it achieved

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It's hoped that the principles applied here could be

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used to teach other agility-type motions.

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Cocktail waiters and netball players beware!

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Smart clothes and accessories are coming in from the cold,

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moving from geeky to good-looking, so I've been testing

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a few of the latest to check it's not just style over substance.

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It's getting a bit chilly, so I was quite pleased to receive

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this prototype, and it's quite smart.

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Smart clothes and accessories are coming in from the cold,

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moving from geeky to good-looking, so I've been testing

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a few of the latest to check it's not just style over substance.

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It's getting a bit chilly, so I was quite pleased to receive

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this prototype, and it's quite smart.

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In fact, its makers call it a smart coat, which could be

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slightly over-egging it, but it does warm up,

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and the finished product will also be able to charge your mobile phone.

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Coats that heat up are far from new, but this brings them

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It uses a type of infrared that claims, instead of simply heating

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the skin, to be absorbed by the body to help relax muscles and increase

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blood flow, as well as keep you snug.

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So am I walking around in more than just a luxury electric blanket?

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The biggest concentration of the polymer is on the kidneys,

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because that's where all your circulation runs through,

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and once your kidneys are warmed up, all your blood warms up,

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your circulation warms up, and it makes you feel warm all over.

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But then we have two other parts at the front, smaller parts,

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which give you the feeling of, you know, getting this warm hug

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This technology wasn't created to make you feel,

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With this, the idea is that you can regulate it depending

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what the weather is, so if you are in the Tube and it

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gets warm, you can just switch it off.

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Whilst it felt luxurious and cosy to wear, seeing as I wasn't

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overheating with it on full on a mild September day,

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I'm just not convinced the actual coat is as thick as I

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This smart ring is part of a range of jewellery offering

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You select what alerts you would like by going into

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the app, choosing notifications, and then selecting the categories

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So it could be to tell you that your taxi's arrived,

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get a phone call, a calendar alert, and then once you've chosen,

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you select the number of buzzes that represent each thing.

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This colour may not have been to my taste, but there are others.

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The bracelets track activity too, and I actually rather

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enjoyed its functionality, particularly as you could subtly

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And if you'd like to be subtly smart, then here is the latest way

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of turning a regular watch into a smartwatch.

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And after Apple scrapped the standard headphone socket

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on its iPhone, Bluetooth headphones may be the future.

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If you've decided that's so, then you won't want them

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There's more to this rather chunky bracelet than meets the eye.

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Inside are a pair of Bluetooth earbuds.

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Taking them in and out of the bracelet was pretty slick,

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and the sound quality was good, but they didn't stay in my ears

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as easily as the sportier buds I usually wear.

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And when it comes to style, well, when you're wearing them,

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the bracelet is left with a bit of a funny gap.

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So, while some of the prototypes may still need perfecting,

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the appetite for functional fashion is growing, so the stakes -

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and not just the price tags - may be high.

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That's it for the shortcut of Click this week, the full-length version

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is up one iPlayer right now. Next week we have something very special

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for you, we are off to Japan and you can probably watch our exploits

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right now on Twitter and BBC click. Thanks for watching. We will see you

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there.

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