New Solar Product Captures Up to 95 Percent of Light Energy

MU News Bureau ^ | 5/16/11 | Steven Adams

[Peter from Rutland]

Awesome! If true I’d finally be able to get off the grid and actually afford it.

[Grunthor]

If solar panels were inexpensive, they would have been huge sellers by now. Not just among the hippies, but also among real, non-smelly people that just want to save a buck or two rather than pay it to the electric company.

5 years though? Heck, I’d like it on my roof tomorrow.

[cripplecreek]

Efficiency is a major part of the problem with solar. If true this would be good news.

[Jack of all Trades]

To quote Nigel Tufnel:

“It’s like, how much more black could this be? and the answer is none. None more black.”

[4rcane]

i hope this is not more empty promises. I’ve have seen so many of this type of articles that end no where.

[Dead Corpse]

The two other major issues are storage for when the sun goes down and areas of the Country that may not have the greatest quality of sunlight to begin with. Like us folks up here in Minnesota with our 6 months+ winters.

As an augment, it'd be nice. It still wouldn't beat a footlocker size reactor in my backyard putting out enough power to run my entire households electrical needs for the next 30 years...

[4rcane]

surely they should be able to give us a demonstration of this tech on their prototype right now, right?

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Of course, there will be no environmental impact when entire regions are shaded by solar panels.

It's a good thing wildlife and plants don't require sunlight, or it might be a problem.

[4rcane]

usually this type of articles are just plea for more funding. And then when someone dumb enough do fund this project, its end up not as promised and the investor pull out, then the environmental community cry conspiracy by evil rich ppl and big oil companies against solar energy

[drangundsturm]

I call BS based on this from the article:

Within five years, the research team believes they will have a product that complements conventional PV solar panels.

This is weasel-wording, pure and simple. If his technology is nearly 5 times as efficient, and as the article says can be cheaply manufactured, then there is no need for convential PV panels anymore, they are totally obsolete. So why would he say his project "complements" them?

Read between the lines and you can learn a lot of what is not being said here. That quote tells me there is some fatal flaw with this technology and the article is not revealing that flaw.

[cripplecreek]

The two other major issues are storage for when the sun goes down and areas of the Country that may not have the greatest quality of sunlight to begin with. Like us folks up here in Minnesota with our 6 months+ winters.

True enough but with 90% efficiency I suspect there would be a fair amount of power generated even on overcast days.

I'm with with you on the backyard nuke.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

“As part of a rollout plan, the team is securing funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and private investors.”

This should be enough of a clue that it's a scam.

[dangerdoc]

That’s what I thought.

[dangerdoc]

????

[Stardust558]

Capturing the light and then converting it to energy are two different things, unless the the tech is there to convert the energy then this can only complement existing tech.

[musicman]

Whew!!! Just in time!!! Barry was just about gonna have to start drillin' here at home!!!!!

[4rcane]

Anyone remember the 320 MPG promotion of GM electric car? I was so excited when I heard about it. This was only a few years ago. Now look at it now. The car is a total junk. Their 320 MPG was exaggerated and the car too expensive and they don’t last long before you have to switch out for another expensive battery

[WorkerbeeCitizen]

“Once the funding is secure, ...”

As I suspected

[NVDave]

Here’s an actual engineering paper on the topic:

http://www.inl.gov/pdfs/nantenna.pdf