Solar Cell Achieves 40% Efficiency

Fysiks Wurks found on the U.S. Department of Energy website news of a breakthrough in solar energy efficiency. From the article: "...with DOE funding, a concentrator solar cell produced by Boeing-Spectrolab has recently achieved a world-record conversion efficiency of 40.7 percent, establishing a new milestone in sunlight-to-electricity performance." A page linked from Wikipedia's article on solar energy calculates the land area that would need to be covered by solar collectors at 8% efficiency to meet the world's energy needs (using 2003 figures). At 40% efficiency, it looks like a square 265 miles on a side in the American southwest would do it.

Comments

Re:Finally!

[gunny01]

That comment is so ignorant, I'm gonna included an equally bigoted comment of my own!

Why not use Lebanon? They don't have any oil and the knowledge of the falafel has been safely exported.

Re:Cost is the issue

[Darkman, Walkin Dude]

That is what you said. I merely pointed out that deserts are more than snakes and scorpions.

No, you made the grossly incorrect assumption that I was saying that deserts are empty of valuable life, and are now quoting me out of context and backtracking to try and cover your exposed ass.

I then pointed out the flaw in your thinking that by shading the desert you could turn into into viable farmland.

Something you still haven't proven is by any means a flaw. Solar panels don't point straight up in a uniform sheet, you pleb.

So I'll say no thanks to that course, my reading comprehension is just fine.

I'd have to say knee jerk++.

Oh, and just to throw a little more fuel on the flame, Iraq wasn't about oil. They're killing thousands of people to advance America's interests in geopolitics, most of which does not have anything to do with energy needs.

So the war in Iraq has nothing to do with oil. I'm trying to think of a way in which you could do your argument more harm, but its just not coming...