12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy

Re:12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy by PieSquared on Friday September 19, 2008 @08:22PM (#309607)

Maybe the efficiency only counts the visible radiation? So that the fact that it uses ultraviolent screws up the 7-15% (that is, if you include UV light, its much lower?) That'd be my guess...

Although it is rather low on facts and high on hype.

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Re:12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy by ks on Saturday September 20, 2008 @12:46AM (#309732)

Yes, I think you're right.

From the article: Most solar cells in use today are either photovoltaic, meaning they harness only visible light, or thermal.

Also: they're engineered to stand freely in three dimensions

So you have panels that catch both visible and UV light, and can do it in three dimensions.

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Re:12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy by hugh on Saturday September 20, 2008 @02:08AM (#309766)

The amount of energy coming through in the UV portion of the spectrum is quite small:

http://www.sunwindsolar.com/a_images/solar_insolation-b.jpg

Everything to the left of the "visible light" portion.

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Re:12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy by PieSquared on Saturday September 20, 2008 @08:13AM (#309873)

Huh. In that case, there's no way that '500 times' can have any bearing towards reality whatsoever. :)

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