[PeaceBeWithYou]

Solar paint coming soon.

[Vor Lady]

Hmmm....

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

The connections between cells are more expensive then silicon.

[Lazamataz]

Sandia National Labs has harnessed silicon's natural tendency to grow into islands and used micro-electro-mechanical systems techniques to free those islands into the world's smallest solar cells.

Sandia also created the world's first LSD.

They be trippin'.

[BlueStateBlues]

Paint, clothing, car batteries, rooftop coverings, a large list of uses if they perfect this enough to have real world application. Would this translate into computer chip tech in any way? Thanks for the thread.

[cripplecreek]

As far as alternatives are concerned, solar probably has the greatest potential. I know that solar collecting crystals have been produced in a lab that are some 80% efficient but can’t be mass produced yet. Current technology can mass produce solar collectors that are some 20 to 30% efficient.

If we can ever mate mass production with 80% collection efficiency (at a reasonable cost) we’ll see solar take off.

From what I’ve read, 80% efficient collectors could mean solar collectors for the home that are only a few square feet rather than dozens of square feet. In fact with that kind of efficiency, solar starts to become viable even in cloudier and more northerly locations.