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Nanotechnology Boosts Solar Cell Performance
Roland Piquepaille writes "Physicists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) say they have improved the performance of solar cells by 60 percent. And they obtained this spectacular result by using a very simple trick. They've coated the solar cells with a film of 1-nanometer thick silicon fluorescing nanoparticles. The researchers also said that this process could be easily incorporated into the manufacturing process of solar cells with very little additional cost. Read more for additional references and a photo of a researcher holding a silicon solar cell coated with a film of silicon nanoparticles."
That's correct, but what you failed to note is that the UV spectrum contains a much larger amount of energy than either the visible or the infrared spectra do. Shorter wavelength, higher energy. And the higher energy particles are the ones that are the most desirable anyways.