Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Caltech Makes Flexible, 86% Efficient Solar Arrays

Posted by kdawson on from the bend-me-shape-me dept.

strredwolf writes "Caltech has released a flexible solar array that converts 95% of single-wavelength incandescent light and 86% of all sunlight into electricity. Instead of being flat-panel, they stand thin silicon wires in a plastic substrate that scatters the light onto them. The total composition is 98% plastic, 2% wire — the amount of silicon used is 1/50th that of ordinary panels. So as soon as they can get these to market, solar could be very viable and cheap to produce." Update: 03/01 21:02 GMT by KD : Reader axelrosen points out evidence that the 80%+ efficiency figure is wrong. MIT's Tech Review, in covering the Caltech announcement, says that the new panel's efficiency is in the 15%-20% range — which is competitive with the current state of the art. And the Caltech panel should be far cheaper to manufacture.

8 of 439 comments (clear)

  1. Meh by zmollusc · · Score: 5, Funny

    All these idiots working on solar panels when what is really needed is overcast panels to get power from gloomy days when you use more light bulbs.

    --
    They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
  2. Will they float? by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    If we set up solar devices so that they can float in water and function as an interconnected grid, we could drape a network of them over the Pacific Garbage Patch so no one would notice it.

  3. Re:Absorbed not necessarily equal to electricity by someone1234 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, getting hot water out of it is a feature, not a bug.

    --
    Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
  4. Re:I think its entirely reasonable to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually it's spot-on. See, carbon-friendly means not turning the carbon into carbon dioxide. That is, it means not gassing the carbon. I think you would call not gassing Jews Jew-friendly.

  5. Re:Plastic? 10 years under the sun? by Snarf+You · · Score: 4, Funny

    '94 Saturn ... parked in the Arizona sun for many years ... multiple electronics failures ... engine oil leak

    Survived the sunlight just fine

    It sure sounds it.

    *ducks*

  6. Re:It's plastic ! by SharpFang · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's plastic, and then there's plastic. Some modern plastics are quite explosive.

    --
    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  7. Re:Massive typo in summary. by squizzar · · Score: 5, Funny

    You hook a lightbulb up to a solar panel, and it will keep glowing forever. Obviously this has to be done in a completely sealed box so that none of the light escapes, so you are forbidden from checking that the light is still glowing.

    Some would say it's useless, but it improves the quality of life of physicists' cats quite dramatically.

  8. Re:Godwin's Law! by Threni · · Score: 5, Funny

    Talking of Nazis, did you know that every other use of an apostrophe in your first sentence was incorrect?