Fiber optics could revolutionize solar power
 

Imagine: solar cells embedded in your walls!

BBC - November 4th, 2009

You never know what form revolutionary technologies will take. --Ed.

Solar power could be produced cheaply in specially designed optical fibres, say researchers.

The work, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, makes use of nanometre-scale wires built around optical fibres like bristles.

Those wires give the light much more surface area to interact with, leading to higher overall efficiencies.

However, only the ends of the fibres must be exposed - they funnel the light elsewhere for power generation.

Instead of roof-sized panels, small collectors could be used on the roof, with the real machinery of solar power generation tucked away, for example, between a home's walls.

"Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile," said Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US.

Dye job

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