Carbon Nanotube Solar Cells On the Horizon 150
MikeChino writes Carbon nanotube news abounds as of late, and the next application for the up and coming material may be hyper-efficient and economical solar cells. Led by professor Paul McEuen, researchers at Cornell recently tested a simple solar cell (called a photodiode) crafted from a single carbon nanotube. Surprisingly, researchers discovered that more light shined on the nanotube created even more electricity, a huge difference from today's silicon solar cells where excess energy is lost in the form of heat rather than used to create more electricity."
Homer says... (Score:5, Funny)
Carbon nanotubes... is there anything they _can't_ do?
Re:Homer says... (Score:4, Funny)
They have yet to get me a date with Megan Fox.
Re:Homer says... (Score:5, Funny)
Again with the #$##%# solar cells (Score:5, Funny)
Not a week goes by that you don't hear about yet another breakthrough in cheap and efficient solar cells. Every week, without fail, since 1979, I swear to God. Any more grains of salt, and I'll have a heart attack.
Re:The technology isn't important (Score:5, Funny)
The question is, it it cost-effective?
If someone developed a 99% efficient solar cell, would you really care what it cost?
Re:The technology isn't important (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Homer says... (Score:1, Funny)
Wow! Did you actually get to _see_ the nanotube??
Re:The technology isn't important (Score:2, Funny)
It's a great finding, but unfortunately, making nanotubes is a HIGHLY energy intensive process
Obviously we need someone to invent some sort of hyper-efficient, clean and renewable energy source to power the manufacturing process then.
Re:The technology isn't important (Score:3, Funny)
Well, if somebody developed a 150% efficient solar cell I wouldn't care about cost.
Then again, you could use such a solar cell to power some high efficiency light producing device (say, a LED) which you would point at the solar cell thus getting back more energy than you used to power the light (i.e. free energy).
Re:Ooh, ooh (Score:3, Funny)
There's an app for that.