https://techxplore.com/news/2021-07-solar-cells-layer-crystals-thousand.html This is one of those discoveries that makes you want to wait and see what happens, because there should be a few hundred thousand scientists, all rushing to reproduce their results, but this would change everything overnight. Who the fuck needs batteries to run a solar powered car, when all you need is sunshine. People tend to think of our technology as advanced, but science has yet to even master such things as acoustics and thermodynamics, and discoveries like this may require a century or more to make, indicating that this is likely a common process they can reproduce any number of ways.
I'll believe it when I see it. There is only so much power in the sunlight. IDK, something like 1000 watts per square meter, lets say. Current tech panels are something like 10% efficient. So about 100 watts per square meter. Quality and output vary greatly but lets just go with those numbers for simplicity. That means a 100% efficient panel, as if that was possible, would be 10X more powerful than existing technology... so you can see how I might be skeptical about 1000X claims.
Check out a company in which I bought stock back in 2009. SolarwindowsTechnology. It's been up and down from a couple of dollars to recently 39 dollars and now is back down to 6 ,or 7. But when they start getting their first customers---!!!
This is along the lines of Edison inventing the light bulb, when he discovered bamboo would do the trick. The problem is that the tools to investigate the properties of matter more thoroughly have only recently become available, and all the results indicate the idiots have little clue what they're doing still, and it will require a few more decades before they have a better idea of the possibilities. DARPA is doing the research now but, without a theory of everything, it could be decades before they make more sense out of everything.
Best current panel I've read about lately is 23 %, same Co is working on a 30 %. I'm invested in several solar co. stocks so I read up on them often.
I just follow the fundamental physics, but the only question is how long it will take to replace silicon, with the newest research incorporating AI to narrow down the possibilities, but a theory of everything is what we require to save the planet. Neither power, water, food, nor basic technology appear to be an issue in the long run, and the real problem is nobody comprehends how nature works, and the idiots are often shooting themselves in the foot, but the computers are now powerful enough to spit out the numbers, and change everything overnight.
