Solar Breakthrough Could Provide Power Without Solar Cells

An anonymous reader tips a University of Michigan news release about the creation of what's being called an "optical battery" that could lead to the use of solar power without traditional solar cells (abstract). Quoting: "Light has electric and magnetic components. Until now, scientists thought the effects of the magnetic field were so weak that they could be ignored. What Rand and his colleagues found is that at the right intensity, when light is traveling through a material that does not conduct electricity, the light field can generate magnetic effects that are 100 million times stronger than previously expected. Under these circumstances, the magnetic effects develop strength equivalent to a strong electric effect. 'This could lead to a new kind of solar cell without semiconductors and without absorption to produce charge separation,' Rand said. 'In solar cells, the light goes into a material, gets absorbed and creates heat. Here, we expect to have a very low heat load. Instead of the light being absorbed, energy is stored in the magnetic moment. Intense magnetization can be induced by intense light and then it is ultimately capable of providing a capacitive power source.'"

Comments

Beyond the theoretical limit

[Geoffrey.landis]

The press office at U. Michigan has gone a long way from what they actually did to what they are speculating might be theoretically be possible. What they actually did was to predict a theoretical effect which has not yet been demonstrated. The press office then suggests that if you concentrate sunlight by a factor of a hundred million-- about seven hundred times higher than the theoretical concentration limit-- that this as-yet-unidentified material might be able to convert the light into electricity.
This is a bit speculative. They've predicted an interesting theoretical effect. Let's keep it at that, which is a nice piece of work, and leave the speculation to science fiction writers (like me).

Re:Beyond the theoretical limit

[Mt._Honkey]

There's a theorem in imaging that says you cannot focus a light source to create a beam any more intense then at the surface of what is emitting the light. A consequence of this is that you cannot heat something to hotter than the surface temperature of the sun by concentrating sunlight in any way, even if you had a lens the size of the solar system. The spot size that you get will just keep getting bigger.

Incidentally if you were able to do this it would violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics, because you would be moving energy from a cooler object to a warmer one without doing any work, thus decreasing the total entropy of the universe.

Re:I've been reading about solar breakthroughs

[Compaqt]

It's awesome that they are (apparently) directly generating electricity. Much better than the quaint method of boiling water to turn turbines.

Re:I've been reading about solar breakthroughs

[by (1706743)]

Yeah, it's amusing that nuclear power reactors can use the same method as a 1800's steam engine.

Re:I've been reading about solar breakthroughs

[Rei]

I've been reading about solar breakthroughs for 30 years

30 years ago, photovoltaic panels cost almost $40 per watt.
Today, the cheap ones are about $2 per watt.

Mods, how is ignorance insightful?