70 to 80 % efficient solar cells !

[hartiberlin]

Read this:

http://www.hbci.com/~wenonah/new/nsolcel.htm


Regards, Stefan.

[triffid]

I used to work for an electronics firm that had a solar dept that developed solar cells about 15 years ago that were over 80%.About two weeks later a utility firm bought out the solar dept.My company sold its interest in it and my coworker who told me about it got reassigned to another dept.But he said they had achieved 84% and the next thing he knew the work was being shut down.These solar cells achieving over 15% have been known for a while.Triffid

[exxcomm0n]

Unfortunately, it seems that Alvin M. Marks died on May 25, 2008.  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/business/31marks.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

I've gone to his company website and can see that it mentions nothing about this type of tech. Although I hope they are still going forward with production, it's not looking too promising right now.
http://www.phototherm.com/

[triffid]

Too bad he passed away.At 97 years old.I guess the MIB had no part in it.Triffid

[ben8807]

Creating efficient solar cells is not the problem. Creating cheap ones is. There is no real limit on the amount of sunlight anyone has to use. (aside from of course how much land they own.) If there was a material that was only 5% efficient but cost less than 50c a watt (and of course was durable enough for long term use) then we would be seeing a solar revolution.

I love the current number of companies trying to produce cheap solar. Somebody has got to get an actual product out to market. The problem is the number of companies that have this great idea that they can produce cheaply if only they get lots of investment money. So many green energy companies are obvious frauds. It's not even funny anymore.

That said I think we are a decade away from producing all the power we need cheaply from our roofs.