Where are the 70% Efficient Solar Cells?

VernonNemitz asks: "Back in 1984 a patent was granted for silicon chip micro rectennas, which would convert visible photons into electricity in the same way that ordinary rectennas convert microwaves into electricity, at perhaps 70% or greater efficiency. Nobody could make such solar cells back in 1984, but we certainly can today, with sizes of antennas that would capture everything from infrared to the edges of UV -- and the patent has expired. So, where are they?" Currently the most popular type of solar technology is photovoltaics, however PV technology only has an efficiency of about 7-17%. With the potential gains claimed by the technology in the cited patent, has anyone even tried to build one of these units to see if it can live up to the given promise, or at least prove to be a technology than we should be exploring?

Comments

Re:Heres a company - up to 80% efficiency.

[odenshaw]

"A polarized filter passes only the light that does not match its orientation. Only the part of the light wave that is not aligned with the slots in the filter can pass through. Everything else is absorbed."

so there are many layers and each time some gets absorbed and changed into current. all the while lining up the waves as they pass through the layers.

im just making this up though
maybe someone else can help me

Where? I'll Tell You Where....

[Bowie J. Poag]

Three guys strike up a conversation while riding the escalator up to the Pearly Gates (tm) of Heaven.

The first guy asks, "Hey, what did you do to get up here?", and the second guy says, "I fell out of a tree. How about you?" The first guy says, "Me? Nothing spectacular. Just old age." ..At which point, the first guy asks the third guy, "Hey buddy -- How about you? What did you do to get up here?"

"I invented a car that ran on saltwater, and got 500 miles per gallon."

Moral: Companies will milk their "current" technologies until every last penny that can be made from the idea has been made. They'll actively shitcan ideas on the back burner until their current cow dies from exhaustion. Its only when it becomes unprofitable that they move on to better technologies. Take electric cars and ultra-ultra long life lightbulbs. Have been around for damn near a hundred years. Same thing probably goes for efficient solar energy. Whats the point of developing it when you've got billions of people paying good money for coal, natural gas, hydroelectric, and nuclear power?

See you on the escalator. ;)

Cheers,