Title: Beaverton 12 yr old INVENTS 3D SOLAR CELL *VID* Source:
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=131853 URL Source:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0dSwUNN_O4 Published:Sep 20, 2008 Author:William Post Date:2008-09-20 09:22:38 by nikki Keywords:energy, solar, 3D Views:338 Comments:13
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On 2008-09-22 15:59:29, Ninpo wrote:
To: nikki So, like, does he have a working prototype?
No mention of one in what I've read. The 'idea' appears to be two fold, pass his advisors, then find a manufacturer and get it to market. Here's a bit more:
We should note that Yuan based his research on some ground-breaking, graduate-level work on 3D solar cells done at Georgia Tech and Notre Dame. He also had help from professional mentors at Portland State University's Center for Nanofabrication and Electron Microscopy, Applied Materials Inc., and the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of California - Berkeley.
So he didn't actually invent it nor does there seem to be a working protoype....
There is no way that this is 500% more efficient than all but the most least efficient solar cells.
As for "3d," there have been produced and patented such cells at least 2 years ago.
'Nano-Manhattan' 3D solar cells boost efficiency (Update)"NewCyte has patent pending, low cost technology for depositing semiconductor layers directly on individual fullerenes," explained Dennis J. Flood, NewCyte’s president and CTO. "We are using our technology to grow the same semiconductor layers on the carbon nanotube towers that GTRI has already demonstrated. Our goal is to achieve performance and cost levels that will make solar cells using the GTRI 3D cell structure competitive in the broader terrestrial solar cell market."
Not even these guys, that have a patent, are making such wild claims. I suspect that the reporter misundersood what he/she was told.
The highest efficiency to date is 41% conversion. Very expensive. Claiming 9 times that puts it into overunity :). I'll leave it at that.
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