Gadgets and just Gadgets

80% Efficient Solar Panel instead of 40%

The most expensive, carefully designed, and complicated solar panels in the world operate at about 40% efficiency, meaning that only 40% of the solar light is turned into electricity.Even though scientists think that this is just about as good as silicon panels can do, Steven Novack of the Idaho National Laboratories came with an inexpensive, foldable solar panel that may turn out to be up to 80% efficient.

The trick is nanotechnology. The surface of the material is printed with miniscule nano-antennae that capture infra-red radiation, the kind that the sun puts out in abundance, and is even available at night. Television antennas absorbe large wavelength energy, so in order to absorb ultra-small wavelength energy (photons) they had to create ultra-small antennas.The material is fairly simple to create, and scientists are confidient that it would scale easily out of the laboratory. But there is a bit of a hitch: There’s currently no way to capture the energy being created.

But don’t worry, those geniuses in Idaho are working on that already so it’s just a matter of time.

Tags: energy, Idaho National Laboratory, infrared, power, science, solar