Many of today's solar panels collect only about 20% of available light, but a University of Missouri engineer says he's found a solution. His team has developed a flexible solar sheet that captures up to 95% of light energy and plans to make affordable prototypes available to consumers within five years.
"If successful, this product will put us orders of magnitudes ahead of the current solar energy technologies we have available to us today," Patrick Pinhero, an associate professor, said in announcing his findings. Using special high-speed electrical circuitry, the thin, moldable sheets of small antennas -- called nantenna – can harvest the heat from sunlight and industrial processes and convert it into usable electricity.
Pinhero, who worked with former colleagues at the Idaho National Laboratory and electrical engineering professor Garrett Moddel of the University of Colorado, also partnered with Dennis Slafer of MicroContinuum, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., to develop the sheet into inexpensive mass-produced products.
The team is securing funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and private investors. Because it's a flexible film, Pinhero said it could be incorporated into roof shingle products, custom-made to power vehicles or used in optical computing as well as to improve contraband-identifying products for airports. (source : usatoday.com)
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