12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
news.yahoo.com
12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
1–10 of 18 posts
Re: 12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
#2Wow!
Re: 12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
#3500 times the light of a traditional cell? And if traditional cells run at what, somewhere from 7 to 12% efficiency for standard ones?
So he's getting what, upwards of 3500% efficiency? Even accounting for the extra energy of using ultraviolet wavelengths, this sounds a lot like bad math.
Now if he boosted the efficiency to say, three times what we get now? That'd be amazing all on its own.
Re: 12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
#4The kid didn't invent it, but he did make an implementation of a relatively new idea.
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/09/12-year-old-rev.html?n...
Re: 12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
#5500 times the light of a traditional cell? And if traditional cells run at what, somewhere from 7 to 12% efficiency for standard ones? So he's getting what, upwards of 3500% efficiency? Even accounting for the extra energy of using ultraviolet wavelengths, this sounds a lot like bad math. Now if he boosted the efficiency to say, three times what we get now? That'd be amazing all on its own.
The best solar cells have something like 30% efficiency at the moment. Even if he boosted it by 1% it would be impressive.
At the moment I've got no idea what he _actually_ did. Obviously, parts of this story are complete BS (e.g. 500 times). Is there something genuinely worthwhile? I haven't read a sufficiently detailed article to figure it out.
Re: 12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
#6> Most solar cells in use today are either photovoltaic, meaning they harness only visible light, or thermal.
Hmmm. I'm pretty sure that's not the definition that I learned.
Re: 12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
#7The kid didn't invent it, but he did make an implementation of a relatively new idea. http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/09/12-year-old-rev.html?n...
Did he actually build one? I haven't seen any indication that he did anything other than "design" one. And it's a lot easier to "design" a nanoscale device than it is to build one.
I mean, I'm sure the kid is smart and all (and no doubt has had some help from his parents) but the media-hype to technical-details ratio here is off the charts.
Re: 12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
#8500 times the light of a traditional cell? And if traditional cells run at what, somewhere from 7 to 12% efficiency for standard ones? So he's getting what, upwards of 3500% efficiency? Even accounting for the extra energy of using ultraviolet wavelengths, this sounds a lot like bad math. Now if he boosted the efficiency to say, three times what we get now? That'd be amazing all on its own.
Maybe the efficiency only counts the visible radiation? So that the fact that it uses ultraviolent screws up the 7-15% (that is, if you include UV light, its much lower?) That'd be my guess...
Although it is rather low on facts and high on hype.
Re: 12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
#9The kid didn't invent it, but he did make an implementation of a relatively new idea. http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/09/12-year-old-rev.html?n...
http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/3d-solar.htm
“We have demonstrated that we can extract electrons using this approach,” Ready said. “Now we need to get a good baseline to see where we compare to existing materials, how to optimize this and what’s needed to advance this technology.”
Re: 12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy
#10500 times the light of a traditional cell? And if traditional cells run at what, somewhere from 7 to 12% efficiency for standard ones? So he's getting what, upwards of 3500% efficiency? Even accounting for the extra energy of using ultraviolet wavelengths, this sounds a lot like bad math. Now if he boosted the efficiency to say, three times what we get now? That'd be amazing all on its own.
Maybe the efficiency only counts the visible radiation? So that the fact that it uses ultraviolent screws up the 7-15% (that is, if you include UV light, its much lower?) That'd be my guess... Although it is rather low on facts and high on hype.
Yes, I think you're right.
From the article: Most solar cells in use today are either photovoltaic, meaning they harness only visible light, or thermal.
Also: they're engineered to stand freely in three dimensions
So you have panels that catch both visible and UV light, and can do it in three dimensions.