Reader [unangst] pointed out to us an article in the U.K.’s Daily Mail, where a teenager from Nepal had managed to create a 9v, 18W solar panel using human hair rather than the usual semiconductors (usually crystalline-silicon). The complex silicon in solar panels are what keep the prices out of reach of developing nations, and while there are a number of new technologies that are helping bring down the cost, [Karki] managed to make his solar panel for only £23 (roughly $38). He also claims that when mass produced the price could drop substantially down to under $10 a panel, which would shatter the $1/watt sweet spot.
The melanin in hair acts as an organic-semiconductor, and while the hair does not have the longevity that silicon panels have (months rather than years), these panels can be made cheaply and serviced with little to no complex knowledge. Using melanin as an organic semiconductor seems to be a newer idea, because information seems hard to come by, but we managed to find a research paper from 2007 that explored the energy absorption attributes of melanin, as well as some good background info for the science types.
Research Paper (Warning: PDF)
So, Hack a Day readers, which one of you is going to make your home-brew solar panels first? Let us know when you do.
Thanks [unangst].
[digg=http://digg.com/environment/Teenager_Makes_DIY_Solar_Panels_from_Hair_Hack_a_Day]
WOW! COOL!, anyone need a hair cut? i could use some extra solar panels. :P
seriously? we’re falling for this? If we leave aside the issue of there being no actual explanation of how this works, the surface area of the hair in this system is so small that the amount of solar energy falling on that area would be tiny, and it would be impossible to produce the amount of power they’re claiming
I really wouldn’t trust the Daily Heil on anything, least of all technical matters. I’ll remain sceptical for the moment. ;-)
i dont think they mean the person uses hair as the actual semi conductor but rather the melanin in the hair so his panel isn’t made of hair but of the melanin and the news people were just trying to compare it to somthing
Finally a good use for pubes!
If melanin is responsible for the photo electric conversion, then people with dark hair will be in huge demand.lol
I admit, it’s got me a bit suspicious, the Daily Mail is not one of the best papers in the UK; not as low as an outright tabloid, but nothing like The Guardian.
The paper that hackaday found supports the theory. Unfortunately, precedings.nature.com is a PRE-publication site, there are no comments, and only four votes for the paper, so it hasn’t been seriously reviewed.
Not possible given the size of the panel and “density” of hair as shown in the photographs. The actual surface area of hair receiving illumination would not provide 18W even at 100% conversion efficiency. Joke, or Scam… (Sigh.)
After taking a gander at the source, this screams bologna to me. Just my two cents.
Some other organic solar cell research: http://www.blog.thesietch.org/2007/04/08/organic-solar-cell-breakthrough/
While melanin may have important applications in photochemistry, what these guys are doing is pretty fake. As someone has pointed out, the surface area of the hair is insufficient to produce the power output claimed – particularly as the background is black and will not reflect light back onto the hair.
Secondly, hair is a pretty darned good insulator. Try it with your multimeter if you don’t believe me. gotta call “bullshit” on this one.
if this is true, this would be amazing, but I have my doubts to it’s legitimacy.
very cool stuff, I also have some doubts but very cool if true
Wohoo! Hack readers are calling bullshit left and right! Looks like the BS meter hasn’t run out of juice!
Sorry, I ment to say “Our crack team of hack readers…”
“our hack team of crack readers” has a nice ring to it.
What’s the efficiency? 0%?
Fail
“our hack team of crack smokers” sounds cool too.
“our crack team of crack crackers”
Our caps team of CAPSLOCKERS?
Note in the artical that two dissimilar metals – copper and aluminum:
“We proceeded to test the photo electrochemical properties of melanin by
manufacturing a prototype cell (figure 2). We started with a very simple cell were
the electrolyte was a 1.3% solution of melanin in distilled water, cooper and
aluminum electrodes 2.5 cm apart, cooper wires (covered with silicon) where
attach to the electrodes by glued them down, we noticed that any kind of
welding affected the melanin’s behavior. The cell started to give up electricity
just a few minutes after being ensemble.
and that the output declined after a few hours”
– sounds more like a battery to me…
cool, now i can charge my ipod with my dreadlocks
Possible, energy is max 1000w per sq meter, by looking at the pictures in the article, the hair is used to colour the back panel, the lumps and what seem to be hairs are the front connection wires and not collection devices…
The 1 USD/Watt goal is a bogus goal. Coal fired power plants cost 1,78 USD/Watt!! Just get yourself cheap power and break through the industry stronghold
http://tinyurl.com/m5e25n
Here is a publication about melanin contributing to photoelectric generation http://tinyurl.com/mkvcwz
it looks like a fake story, like the indian dude who pretended to be able to print several gigabytes of information on a regular sheet of paper… http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2006/11/8288.ars hahaahah
This is a hoax and a very obvious one at that. I’m pretty disappointed at Hack A Day for letting this one through.
Kevin: The ars tehnica article is pretty bad contradicting itself several times and messing up GB and MB. I wouldn’t trust it anymore than the original research.
This “sounds” fake but I think they’re using hair as a cable only and everybody is just misunderstanding
Gimme lots of hair (hair) photovoltaic hair! (hair)
Selling power back to the grid through the wonder of my
hair
hair
hair
-or not, as the case may be.
So, they create energy from thin hair?
I’m looking for a power conditioner that doesn’t cause oily buildup like so many others do…
-something that leaves my photovotaic array feeling silky and manageable.
After this, I can’t take a bath immerging my hair in water, cause there is seriously risk of electrical shock !
I’m not denying that organic solar cells work, or even that they might use melanin as the active dye, but there is also the fact that the panel shown looks to be about the same size as an 18W silicon panel (which is a pretty substantial size), even though “state of the art” organic cells are still far below silicon in efficiency. (there main point of interest is vastly cheaper manufacturing.) Organic melanin-based solar cells? Maybe. 18W from an amateur-constructed panel of the size shown? No way.
Hairy solar panels and sweet spots? Sounds like porno solar. It should sell well above $1/Watt!
Now we just need a battery bank made out of tofu to make this practical…
Seriously hackaday, get a grip. Even is this weren’t bunk, your story is riddled with problems — $1/W has already been broken, longevity is one of THE major factors in the cost structure of cells, and developing nations are one of the major benefactors of the solar industry since they can largely bypass the need to scale an electrical infrastructure based on centralized production. Boo.
I just wanted to comment on the “comment” about the surface area. I don’t know if you guys know but I did read an article where the researches ware using a “fuzzy” matterial that resulted in greater efficiency^2 … however I’d like to have a panel that didn’t need an haircut every few weeks, I forget to cut my already and I don’t need anther excuse for the home owner association to bug me with. “Sir would you please give your roof pannels a trim” …
… passer by “get your house a haircut hipie!”
Needs more arduino.
Hairy Arduino…I think he owns a pizza place down the street.
lol strider_mt2k! You made me ROFL! :)
The nature link is complete bs. PDFs on nature precedings are not peer-reviewed at all–they likely did this to make themselves look legitmate. I’m pretty sure they measured something wrong.
O.K. Here is a stupid question. Can anyone tell me why the ‘scope’ display in the pdf figure is showing an AC waveform? Shouldn’t the output from a ‘solar cell’ be DC.
Also, the LED has been lit for 10,000 hours? Thats over a year of contiuous operation – so they had this working a year ago and are now just publishing this paper.
If this is legit then it is very interesting. However, I have serious doubts after reading the paper.
I actually thought for a moment to see if it was April fool day – just a few months off.
Read about this ages ago.
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2005/12/20/184393.html
My house is surrounded by trees. I think I could get a buzz out of using all the trees to power my house :)
Ops wrong article. Sorry
Should have been for http://hackaday.com/2009/09/10/tapping-tree-power/
Debunk site: http://sites.google.com/site/edwardcraighyatt/hairsolarpanelnepal
no, no, no… nobody’s going to be homebrewing this. this will only matter if someone figures out they have to first invest in some cheap easy-to-set-up permanent infrastructure, so they can change out the very-mass-produced panels every month or whatever… and they have to arrive via a bunch of shipping just-in-time because nobody’s going to want to sit on them while they race toward expiry… or they have to be preservable while stored somehow at the very least… i need to know more about it before i can consider it even partially hopeful anywhere.
I built my own Solar Panels for under $100 that I am currently using to power my 1700SF home using the plans at:
Ambigrid Review
@ambigrid review: This student is making a solar cell not a solar panel. The student’s technology is based on cuprous oxide which provides about 0.25V at 50uA per 0.01 square meter. To generate 9V at 18W this student’s solar panel would need to be 120m x 120m square. I assume that you mean you assembled a solar panel from silicon cells, correct? If not silicon, what technology is used in the cells?
@Dan Fruzzetti: I agree. Maintenance is going to be an issue for a cell made from human hair. As described in an online article [ http://www.southasianmedia.net/cnn.cfm?id=592678&category=Science&Technology&Country=NEPAL ] this is a wet cell, meaning the hair has to be saturated with a salt water solution to work. I am not sure what it will happen if you keep a mass of hair wet for a month or two, but I am guessing it won’t be pretty. So it’s not just a matter of swapping out the hair, the hair has to be kept wet for the cell to work. I’d be interested in having as many expert eyeballs as possible go over my debunking site, so if you have time, please take a look: http://sites.google.com/site/edwardcraighyatt/hairsolarpanelnepal
I used the Ambigrid Plans to build a solar pales for under $100, as well as a solar water heater for less than $10! I can’t say enough good things about them!
@Ambigrid: Thanks for the advertising spam, but I asked about the technology used in the solar panels you made. Do the solar panels use silicon solar cells? Yes or no.