New type solar panels

MNGeeks61 wrote:

For that matter, when I was growing up in the late 70's/early 80's I recall lots of Popular Science and Scientific American articles proclaiming that electric cars were only a few years away...

clicky

1981 GM electric car predictions

and by 1990 it was finally a prototype...

interestingly enough, electric cars predate internal combustion powered cars. if only the engineers back then would have put more effort into battery and motor technology all those years ago, instead of going the "easy route" using internal combustion.

Sounds exciting, but I did a bit more research and found out:

click for 2013 MIT folks doing similar things

oops, one more link from 2012

transparent cells

Of interest is this statement:

their power-conversion efficiency is low—only about 2%. In a detailed theoretical analysis, Lunt, Bulovi?, and others showed that their design should realistically be able to reach over 12% efficiency, a rating comparable to that of existing commercial solar panels.


Yes, 12% was good, now some panels exceed 20%. In any case, a "few" years of research will be required to hone these into usable consumer products.

Of interest was a dye-sensitized cell that I found during my brief googling. These might be more effective on a building (in conjunction with those other cells)but still not all that efficient.

dye-sensitized cells

For that matter, when I was growing up in the late 70's/early 80's I recall lots of Popular Science and Scientific American articles proclaiming that electric cars were only a few years away...

clicky

1981 GM electric car predictions

and by 1990 it was finally a prototype...

Transparent solar has been "a few years away" for at least the last 20 years. These kids at MSU are hardly the first to think of the idea or announce it with a grandiose press release.

The Texan wrote:
Technology is advancing rapidly.

http://washingtonweeklynews.com/a-fully-transparent-solar-cell-has-been-created-that-could-make-every-window-and-screen-a-power-source/

Sorry, the link feature is not working ...

A better site: MSU Transparent Solar
This story is over a year old. Haven't seen any progress on it since.....