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This sounds promising.
By gochichi on 11/5/2008 4:41:44 PM , Rating: 2
It's very strange to talk about efficiency of solar panels because solar energy cannot be turned off, it's there whether you have a panel to capture it or not. I get that efficiency is relevant, but it's not relevant the same way as when you're talking about coal or gasoline.

Making mechanical devices that reorient the panels obsolete technology is important if you're going to economize and do large scale use of this stuff.

The "efficiency" per say is not going to change, it's just going to have more energy coming in, whereas that energy was bouncing off otherwise. For the purposes of this technology though, it may as well be called efficiency since the main concern are the cost of the panels and the output they produce. It would be similar to having a fuel tank with a leak. The efficiency of the engine doesn't change, but in real terms... the entire system (the car in this example) is inefficient because of that leak.

I'm surprised to see so much nittpicking on this issue. I like it though, I'm impressed.

RE: This sounds promising.
By shin0bi272 on 11/5/2008 5:47:03 PM , Rating: 2
I think what the article was alluding to was that they are trying to make them more efficient by increasing the number of photons that hit the silicon instead of bouncing off of the plastic (i think its plastic) cover. They are hoping that more photons hitting the electricity producing parts will result in a more productive panel. While the actual transfer rate will remain the same for the probability of a photon hitting a silicon molecule and bouncing out an electron will remain the same you will hopefully have more photons bombarding the silicon so the probability of getting a hit will increase that way.

Its like using a minigun instead of an M249... both are belt fed machine guns but the minigun fires 4x as fast as is 9x more accurate thus making it more efficient even when they are firing the same size ammo.

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