Solar power could be produced cheaply in specially designed optical fibres, say researchers.

The work, published in the journal Angewandte Chemie, makes use of nanometre-scale wires built around optical fibres like bristles.

Those wires give the light much more surface area to interact with, leading to higher overall efficiencies.

However, only the ends of the fibres must be exposed – they funnel the light elsewhere for power generation.

Instead of roof-sized panels, small collectors could be used on the roof, with the real machinery of solar power generation tucked away, for example, between a home’s walls.

“Using this technology, we can make photovoltaic generators that are foldable, concealed and mobile,” said Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US.

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Tags: commercial rooftops, nanometre-scale wires, optic fibre solar power, solar thermal power, zhong lin wang

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 11:56 pm and is filed under BBC, Cutting-edge Research, Innovation, Project Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.