Researchers at Idaho National Laboratory partnered with Microcontinuum Inc. and Patrick Pinhero of the University of Missouri, are developing a new way to collect solar energy using nanotechnology that could cost pennies a yard, be imprinted on flexible materials and still collect energy at night.

The technology uses a special manufacturing process to stamp tiny square spirals, http://en.wikipedia.org/wor “nanoantennas”, of conduction metal onto a sheet of plastic and the team estimates individual nanoantennas can absorb close to 80 percent of the available energy in comparison to current commercial solar panels which usually transform less that 20 percent of the usable energy that strikes them into electricity – this is even more impressive than the 30% conversion rate offered by the recently discussed development of nano flakes.

Due to their size – each interlocking spiral nanoantenna is as wide as 1/25 the diameter of a human hair – the nanoantennas absorb energy in the infrared part of the spectrum, just outside the range of what is visible to the eye. Since the sun radiates a lot of infrared energy, some of which is soaked up by the earth and later released as radiation for hours after sunset, nanoantennas can take in energy from both sunlight and the earth’s heat, with higher efficiency than conventional solar cells.

via gizmag

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_ce

Tags: INL, nanotechnology, solar

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