Jackie Chan Discs Help Boost Solar Panel Efficiency

wbr1 writes Apparently the pit pattern on a blu-ray disk is great at helping trap photons, rather than reflecting them. Applying this pattern to the glass in a solar panel can boost efficiency by 22%. Researchers at Northwestern tested this system with Jackie Chan discs. From the article: "To increase the efficiency of a solar panel by 22%, the researchers at Northwestern bought a copy of Police Story 3: Supercop on Blu-ray; removed the top plastic layer, exposing the recording medium beneath; cast a mold of the quasi-random pattern; and then used the mold to create a photovoltaic cell with the same pattern....The end result is a solar panel that has a quantum efficiency of around 40% — up about 22% from the non-patterned solar panel."

Comments

Re:old joke is old

[meglon]

You know why there's not a Bruce Lee meme like there is for Chuck Norris? Bruce Lee isn't a joke.

The First Attempt

[MarkRose]

I heard the first attempt was with Chuck Norris discs, but they burnt holes through the panels.

Re:old joke is old

[Anonymous Coward]

Charles Nelson Reilly have Chuck Norris' head mounted on a wall.

Chuck Norris has Chuck Norris' head mounted on his shoulders.

Room for further research....

[pollarda]

If they can do this with SuperCop, just imagine what sort of efficencies they could get by using an AC/DC album! Also by using AC/DC as the base pattern it might allow them to create native AC and skip the use of a DC->AC power inverter.

Re:Room for further research....

[mjwx]

If they can do this with SuperCop, just imagine what sort of efficencies they could get by using an AC/DC album! Also by using AC/DC as the base pattern it might allow them to create native AC and skip the use of a DC->AC power inverter.

AC/DC is bad, the last thing you want is for your solar panels to be... THUNDERSTRUCK.