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New Solar Panel Technology Gaining Momentum

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the turn-toward-the-light dept.

jessiej writes, "Even though copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS), a newer type of solar panel, is less efficient than its silicon counterpart, millions are being invested in manufacturing. From the article: 'CIGS panels use far less raw material than silicon solar panels and the factories themselves cost less to build,' $25 million compared to $230 million in one example. These types of panels could even be made into a t-shirt logo."

13 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. I can see it now by also-rr · · Score: 5, Funny

    A debian logo on your shirt powering a small bewulf cluster of wearable computers computing Pi to many, many decimal places. What a talking point! How will the girls resist!

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    Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
    1. Re:I can see it now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      They won't need to resist, they would be busy with solar powered toys of their own...

    2. Re:I can see it now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      And the women who wear it?

      "Nice... um... solar panels.."

    3. Re:I can see it now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

      Until they put them where the sun doesn't shine....

    4. Re:I can see it now by Simplulo · · Score: 2, Funny

      more easily than men resist women's old-fashioned silicon-based enhancements.

    5. Re:I can see it now by Herger · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's a great idea, until the girls start throwing themselves at you, blocking the panels and crashing your cluster. New tech is so fraught with peril!

  2. Are they messing with units again? by jamesh · · Score: 2, Funny

    First they measure the factory's output in megawatts per year, presumably because a 1m^2 CIGS panel is not the same as 1m^2 Silicon panel (reminds me of a time when it started dawning on CPU marketers that Mhz wasn't a good selling point when your CPU could crunch more numbers at a lower speed than your competitors).

    Then they use megawatts as a measure of how much power a large coal plant could produce in a year.

    Why can't they just stick to libraries of congress? Eg the unit of measure would be that released by burnt all of the books (and furniture) in a library of congress.

  3. Re:Indium shortage? by brunes69 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am not sure about where Wiki got the figure from though.

    Me either, but the truthiness of it is undeniable!

  4. Dangers of solar power by edxwelch · · Score: 5, Funny

    If you deploy too many solar panels in one place you could use up all the sunlight. This has already happened in nothern Scandinavia and during part of the winter they now are in total darkness.

    1. Re:Dangers of solar power by hey! · · Score: 4, Funny

      If you deploy too many solar panels in one place you could use up all the sunlight. This has already happened in nothern Scandinavia and during part of the winter they now are in total darkness.

      Silly. You're getting free electricity. Just set up a bunch of bright lights to replace the lost sunlight.

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    2. Re:Dangers of solar power by ByteSlicer · · Score: 4, Funny
      Just set up a bunch of bright lights to replace the lost sunlight.
      Yeah. And if you point the lights at the panels, you won't need sunlight anymore!
  5. Volkswagens are much more appropriate by bigtrike · · Score: 2, Funny

    The unit of weight of the media, the Volkswagen, is much more appropriate

  6. How will they resist? by gringer · · Score: 3, Funny

    By using a resistor, of course.

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