This article is a mix a few info portals and weblogs but they all relate. The first is from Technology Research News [4], "Silicon solar cells capture only some of the spectrum of sunlight, limiting their efficiency. A mix of several metals and oxygen could lead to solar cells that capture much more sunlight. The key is misaligning the material's crystal structure by infusing it with oxygen." Editor-in-Chief Paul Hughes of the FutureHi [5] weblog carried this story from Berkeley National Laboratory [6] that "An unexpected discovery could yield a full spectrum solar cell."
Solar cells this efficient and relatively cheap could evolve the use of solar power not just in space but on Earth. Then if there are any problems, TRN has an article about "Red wine mends solar cells [7]." Now that's organic. Why stop there...
...how about Bacteria that make clean power [8], a "microbial fuel cell (that) is fueled by wastewater skimmed from the settling pond of a treatment plant, and the process of drawing electricity from the microbial action taking place in the wastewater also cleans the water."
Good things are happening in the world !!!
UPDATE: April 24. WorldChanging [9] has this article confirming "Boosting Solar Efficiency" [10].
