November 30th, 2006
Solar seems to be taking the forefront in terms of developing technologies. A new process that converts the low-energy photos into short-wave high energy photons is being developed at the Max Planck Institute for polymer Research in Mainz and at the Sony Materials Science Laboratory in Stuttgart.
Scientists are now capable of combining different light wavelengths to produce photos with a particular wavelength. What does this mean? This means this technology could be used to produce more efficient solar cells. Long-wave light is the part of the spectrum that can not be used and is now lost (and overheats the solar panels). With this technology, a kind of photonic fusion, the energy lost is gained thus making the energy capture more effective.
The process is very interesting in a chemical and a physical way and promises to solve solar energy limitations. Read more about this development here.