Whereas silicon has an efficiency of around 15-18%, plastic devices can only achieve 7-8% at best, currently.
Skyline Solar has come up with a solar system that incorporates large amounts of reflective metal that focus the sun on high-efficiency silicon solar cells.
Nanotube circuits could provide a ten-times improvement in energy efficiency over silicon.
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He concedes there is some way to go before plastic PV catches up with silicon's superior efficiency and durability, but even that might not be an issue, he says.
Their tubular design was aimed at optimising the efficiency of the silicon that was being used.
That efficiency falls within what other silicon solar cells can do today, and the company plans to improve that figure.
It does that by working closely with chip designers to get ever more functions burned into silicon and by lending its purchasing clout and efficiency skills to Delta Networks.
SolarCity is moving to capture the home energy efficiency upgrade market the same way the Silicon Valley startup and its competitors turbocharged the market for residential rooftop solar panels: Financial engineering.
SolarCity, located in Silicon Valley, leases solar panels and provides other energy efficiency options to businesses and consumers.
The company is a pioneer in its market and prides itself on tightly engineering its entire product line, from silicon parts through systems and software, to optimize speed and efficiency.
Rattner explained that the new architecture is based on more than a decade's worth of research to invent a family of silicon-based photonic devices, including lasers, modulators and detectors using low-cost silicon to fully integrate photonic devices of unprecedented speed and energy efficiency.
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To this end, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are a significant departure from traditional silicon technologies and a very promising path to solving the challenge of energy efficiency.
ENGADGET: Stanford engineers find work around for barriers to carbon nanotube computers
By providing this secure environment for multiple silicon, software and device manufacturing partners, the joint venture will enable greater operational efficiency across the ecosystem and the industry as a whole.
This high efficiency PV technology allows Suntech to achieve conversion efficiency rates in the range of 18% to 19% on PV cells manufactured with monocrystalline silicon wafers and 16.5% to 17.5% on PV cells manufactured with multicrystalline silicon wafers.
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