Imagine we could also harvest solar power while it’s cloudy outside, and those clouds won’t make much of a difference. That could be possible due to a new generation of perfectly-black solar cells, the blackest possible, which can actually trap 99.7 percent of the incoming light.
Natcore Technology, the exclusive licensee of Rice University black silicon, developed solar cells based on that black matter, and actually hope it will improve power output and reduce cost.
“One of the ways this matters,” said Chuck Provini, the company’s CEO, “is that there isn’t a whole lot of difference between the electricity you get on a sunny day vs. a cloudy day. Diffused light won’t matter that much.”
While solar power is the way to go for 100,000 U.S. citizens working in this industry countrywide, the technology still has place for improvements. To compete with coal, gas, oil and other source of energy, it first has to get cheap enough for people to afford installing solar panels on their own expense and homes.
[via abcnews]
