Leave it to the Chinese and Japanese to find a way to harvest solar energy using butterfly wings. A new finding shows that butterfly wings have tiny scales that act as solar collectors and that they have a higher light-conversion efficiency (10%) than conventional dye-sensitized cells. To burst your bubble, they’re not actually running around a field with butterfly nets, catching them, and applying their wings to a bunch of panels and putting them on top of houses and electronic devises. They’re actually using the wings sort of as molds and copying their solar collectors. They are then transferring those light-harvesting structures onto solar cells.
 

A 10% light-conversion efficiency means nothing to us unless we have an idea what is really the norm. So to help here’s a neat little chart I found (click to enlarge in-screen)

The reason why this is such a big deal is because the whole process, believe it or not, is is simpler and faster than other methods.

Related Posts
1. California Finally Goes Solar
2. Bryan Singer To Direct Battlestar Galactica Feature
3. Emboss Text With CSS
4. Wireless induction charging technology
5. Cut Back On SMS Plans With Social Networks

Tags: Solar Energy