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Most of you know this, but current technology silicon solar panels are near their peak efficiency at 20-25 % efficiency. There is a speculated peak efficiency of around 29%, but we have no idea whether we can reach it or not. The big issue is that only a fraction of the photons that hit the silicon substrate get electrons to move (they create electron holes in fact). However... What if we approach the energy conversion a different
way. We know from college (high school?) physics that light can be
treated as particles (photons), but it can also be treated as
electromagnetic waves. What if we could build tiny antennas that
were sensitive to these waves? What could we get for efficiency
then? These folks think they could get 90% efficiency, and they've
already demonstrated > 40% efficiency. Carbon nano-tubes.
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bp
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