Welcome, solar enthusiast.
Researchers at Ohio State University have created a new material that overcomes two of the major obstacles to solar power: it absorbs energy across more of the spectrum (colors) in sunlight, and generates electrons in a way that makes them easier to capture. [read the full story]
Prior to this new plastic-metal hybrid technology, it was only possible to extract energy from certain narrow parts of the spectrum (i.e. colors). For example, violet light represents a much larger concentration of energy than red, as far as solar panels are concerned. The point is that this new technology can use almost the entire spectrum (all of the colors of the rainbow). This is a big deal!
That’s not all: the new material can generate more electricity than previous equipment. Normally, light loosens electrons from the device and uses them as an electrical current. The problem is that there is very little time to do so. This new appliance, however, has 7 million times more time to get the job done. Granted, that’s still only a millionth of a second, but it is incredibly impressive nonetheless.
It’ll be a few years before we can put this material up on our roofs, but it represents someone that is plenty valuable in itself: progress.
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