New solar tech with 85%+ efficiency and even works at night

[capthook]

Nanoantennas that convert solar/infared energy into electricity.

http://www.gizmag.com/researchers-developing-solar-technology-that-works-at-night/8574

Link to a .pdf from the inventors describing the process.

http://www.inl.gov/pdfs/nantenna.pdf

Further research is needed on efficiently converting the ac current oscillations of 10 thousand billion times a second to a usable 60.

"developing cheap solar energy technology that could be imprinted on flexible materials and still draw energy after the sun has set. The technology uses a special manufacturing process to stamp tiny square spirals, or “nanoantennas”, of conduction metal onto a sheet of plastic and the team estimates individual nanoantennas can absorb close to 80 percent of the available energy in comparison to current commercial solar panels which usually transform less that 20 percent of the usable energy that strikes them into electricity"

"Due to their size â€" each interlocking spiral nanoantenna is as wide as 1/25 the diameter of a human hair - the nanoantennas absorb energy in the infrared part of the spectrum, just outside the range of what is visible to the eye. Since the sun radiates a lot of infrared energy, some of which is soaked up by the earth and later released as radiation for hours after sunset, nanoantennas can take in energy from both sunlight and the earth's heat, with higher efficiency than conventional solar cells."

[onthecuttingedge2005]

Hi Capt.

The problem with Nano scale 'square spirals' is the limited band gap.

If Hexagonal Bowtie arrangements were used then a much greater band gap range could be achieved.

[ewitte]

4 times the efficiency would bring 625sf of panel down to about 40sf.  Thats a huge improvement.