Does anyone know methods for hackers to help and learn more about solar ?
It it possible for the mathematically trained to easily immerse and innovate in the industry ?
It it possible to manufacture solar cells "in your garage" so to speak ?
It it possible for the mathematically trained to easily immerse and innovate in the industry ?
It it possible to manufacture solar cells "in your garage" so to speak ?
A Grätzel or dye sensitized solar cell can be easily created in your garage. Look them up on Youtube.
Source: I work in the field.
To use the situation I'm most familiar with: there are hundreds of millions of people in emerging economies who live off-grid and spend tens of billions of dollars annually on expensive fuel-based energy. They'll switch to solar tomorrow if we [1] can solve the problem of upfront financing [2]. It's the same problem that SolarCity, Sunrun, et al. are tackling in the US. This problem is the kind that gets solved by, among other things, developing the same kind of enterprise-targeted mobile/web/backend/data systems familiar to any developer at a modern SaaS company (but targeting a different, unusually interesting and important market, with some unique challenges).
[1] https://careers.stackoverflow.com/company/angaza/
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/selling-ener...
https://www.edx.org/course/solar-energy-delftx-et3034x
Although most of the current innovation seems to be focused on the panel efficiency, and that area requires some understanding of Materials Science
http://www.rdmag.com/news/2014/01/understanding-perovskite-b...
It can include a lot of software.