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Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Microcontinuum Inc. (Cambridge, MA) conducted a research that promises a method that will produce an inexpensive solar technology. It will draw energy even after the sun sets. The deal is to have solar cells imprinted on flexible materials with the help of special nanoantennas that are stamped on flexible materials like plastic. These nanoantennas can absorb 80% of available energy as compared to the current solar panels which covert less than 20% of usable energy into electricity.
Each nanoantenna has a spiral form with a diameter that is 1/25 of human hair enabling them to absorb energy in the infrared section of the spectrum. The sun radiates a lot of infrared energy, a part of which is absorbed by the planet and released after the sun has set. Nanoantennas take in energy from both sunlight and the earth’s heat. So, it is a more efficient solar product.
However, there is a catch. Manufacturing nanoantennas is not one of them. Actually, there is a problem of creating a way that can store and transmit the electricity produced by nanoantennas. This electricity has the frequency of current switching back and forth ten thousand billion times in a second. Now, this is too fast for electrical appliances that work on currents oscillating 60 times in a second.
Via Gizmag