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7th-Grader Designs Three Dimensional Solar Cell
Hugh Pickens writes "12-year-old William Yuan's invention of a highly-efficient, three-dimensional nanotube solar cell for visible and ultraviolet light has won him an award and a $25,000 scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. 'Current solar cells are flat and can only absorb visible light'" Yuan said. 'I came up with an innovative solar cell that absorbs both visible and UV light. My project focused on finding the optimum solar cell to further increase the light absorption and efficiency and design a nanotube for light-electricity conversion efficiency.' Solar panels with his 3D cells would provide 500 times more light absorption than commercially-available solar cells and nine times more than cutting-edge 3D solar cells. 'My next step is to talk to manufacturers to see if they will build a working prototype,' Yuan said. "If the design works in a real test stage, I want to find a company to manufacture and market it.""
I love to hear about a 12 year old who floors all the latest engineers out there in making solar energy more efficient than anything else. It goes to show you how much of it is pure bureaucratic BS when the gov. stops new technologies from emerging just so they can squeeze that last buck out of the consumer until moving on to the next technology ( as per phones here in Canada )
This should happen more often, and i think if this kid is able to make this happen
so should all the rest of them out there....as we are searching to replace the current energy source.
I have such little faith in humankind, except when I hear a break out story like this one,
I look forward to seeing what 50 years from now will look like.
It sounds funny. 500x the light absorption of 2D cells? Come on.
> 'My next step is to talk to manufacturers to see if they will build a working prototype,'
Yes, do that.
The NEA called. They want to fund your performance art.
PETA called they have a cease and desist order to stop the performance art.
The Republican party called, they want to run attack ads on both, hoping to distract the voters from realizing that their much lauded 'deregulation' and rampant cronyism has caused the biggest Wall Street/Main Street failures in decades.
The grass is only greener, if you don't take care of your own lawn.
In this case, we have no idea how intelligent he is, merely the kind of resources he had access to. I've got an IQ of 150, but when I was in the 7th grade, I had access to a 93 year-old science teacher, 60 year-old textbooks, and all the rubber bands and paper clips I could swipe from home. For all we know, the kid in the article is a retard. I'm banging my head against the wall at the thought of what I could have done at that age with the resources that kid has.