As I said to my brother, it seems like we think about technology as if changes occurs slowly. That's simply not true. Like all innovation technology moves in jumps. Some are small, some are large, and some (like the transistor) create a revolution that transforms our entire society in 30 years.
On that note, huge progress has been made on the front of solar technology and it's something to be excited about. I won't paraphrase though, this brief MIT article will do far better. Also, here's the Reuters article on the same thing.
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quote from the reuter's coverage:
"For the last six months, driving home, I've been looking at leaves, and saying, 'I own you guys now,'" Nocera said.
Awesome quote. Thanks for the reuters article as well - it provides good context. :o)
This is really exciting to see - I especially like how the technology is (seemingly) simple - and modeled after the best solar energy system conversion & storage that we know of (photosynthesis in plants). As it stands the best lab-produced energy conversion results of any experimental photovoltaic cell is only 25-30% - the energy conversion of commercially available cells is only in the 12-15% range. Nowhere have I seen comparisons to plants for energy storage, though!
10 years out.... that seems to be the lead time for all major technological breakthroughs - of course, marketing guys will have you thinking that these silver bullet technologies will be out by tomorrow. Reality is that these things are usually more like 10-25 years out from being put into homes. Of course, if more people start priortizing development in this sector (as energy costs spiral upwards), we might really see this technology come to us in a timely fashion.
I'm certainly cheering from the sidelines on this one!
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