12-Year-Old May Hold Key to Solar Energy

The kid didn't invent it, but he did make an implementation of a relatively new idea.<p><a href="http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/09/12-year-old-rev.html?npu=1&#38;mbid=yhp" rel="nofollow">http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2008/09/12-year-old-rev.html?n...</a>

&#62; Most solar cells in use today are either photovoltaic, meaning they harness only visible light, or thermal.<p>Hmmm. I'm pretty sure that's not the definition that I learned.

Is free-standing actually a good thing? It seems to me if you're trying to maximize flux per unit material, you can't do much better than a flat sheet. The only problem is that the sun moves, but it seems like a free-standing array would only get slightly better performance for much greater cost.

I don't think the 500 times boast is relative to percentage, but rather the standard of measurement used ...therefore the arguement of 3500% efficiency is a mute point...I'm no scientist, in fact my mind doesn't work even close to that of a scientist, but I paid attention in math class...if you are looking at something that is relatively inefficient as far as potential to begin with, 500 times the standard although very impressive is not unrealistic in the least.

500 times the light of a traditional cell? And if traditional cells run at what, somewhere from 7 to 12% efficiency for standard ones?<p>So he's getting what, upwards of 3500% efficiency? Even accounting for the extra energy of using ultraviolet wavelengths, this sounds a lot like bad math.<p>Now if he boosted the efficiency to say, three times what we get now? That'd be amazing all on its own.

Wow!