"...potential efficiencies exceeding 55%"
Wow! Last I studied this, efficienies were about 17% with experimental stuff. Gonna follow this one and start my own utility...
Another leftist rag. Just kidding - if they can get 55% efficiency and a reasonable price, this has huge potential.
But a couple of big ifs.
Quit talking and get on with it!
The sooner we can tell Saudi Arabia et al. to stuff it the better.
["We are excited about bringing a more powerful solar cell to the market as the global economy becomes more dependent on fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas which are rapidly depleting. We will be ready as oil heads past the +$100 a barrel threshold and clean renewable energy becomes a vital platform for economic growth worldwide."]
They take a perfectly good story about a new, high efficiency photovoltaic cell and turn it into a nauseating episode of Captain Planet.
Tech Ping
Through photosynthesis, green plants are able to capture energy from sunlight and convert it into chemical energy...“It’s not enough to just be able to harvest light efficiently, you also have to be able to efficiently convert it to a useful form of energy,” ...(From the Berkley Lab site.)
Exciting prospect for new - and always available energy, "locally" - the Sheiks can sit on their oil;o)
the same photosynthesis process of energy that is utilized by plants, i.e., forms of life, is also necessary for optimum health of humans.
Sunlight used to be 'prescribed' for the treatment of TB. Synthetic sunlight is now prescribed for those suffering from SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder, which leaves one depressed, lethargic, de-energized."
Many are treated with antidepressant drugs...when an hour in the sun would do better...i.e., "harvest" energy from the sun.
In winter, we go to work in sunless offices, come home in the dark. Then we wonder why, after a few months, we feel droopy - so would our houseplants without enough sunlight, is also the best source of vitamin D - critical for healthy bones and teeth, helps maintain adequate blood levels of calcium and phosphorus, helps prevent Osteoporosis, on and on - there's even a new Harvard Medicine study that shows that lung cancer patients operated on in the summer months had twice the expectancy to live 5 years than those operated on in the winter months, like in the north east.
Sunlight gives life to every living thing. For years, we have been told, emphatically, to stay out of the sun. But recently, they have been reversing this. duh...
I even came across an interesting study now being done by NASA's scientists about an Indian (East) man who lives only on sun and water - '"Occasionally he takes coffee, tea or some other liquid."
link:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/07/07/surviving_on_a_diet_of_sunlight.htm
I don't think I'll try that - a little too extreme for me, but I am a believer in sunlight's health properties. And I know about SAD - Up here in the northern most state - coming out of a long winter - I feel like a bear coming out of his den, or a frog coming up out the mud...I spend every moment I can outside, soaking in the sun - and "recharging"... (Maybe I will try the "sun & water diet for a day each week for a bit - I could loose 10 pounds to get to my optimum weight. - and I could use the money saved :O)
Despite the propagandist tone, this is one of the few truthful statements I have ever heard from the "renewable energy" croud.
The truth is that photovoltaic energy costs about $.50 per kilowatt hour. They advertis $.13, but that is an easily exposed lie. Normal PVs are about 12% efficient. This is 4.5 times more efficient, so, all things being equal, the cost should be $.11 per kilowatt hour. Now, if oil goes to $100 per barrel, then electricity will rise to about$.09 per kw-hr, and this idea becomes competitive.