I always thought solar cells were a cool way to generate power - ranging from the little ones in a pocket calculator to the 'wings' on a satellite to the massive orbital power stations from SciFi... but once I grew out of the starry eyed wonder mode, into the world of Science and Wired and a bunch of physicist friends, it was with the realization that most commercial solar panels work at only 7-12% effciency, with the best panels getting ~20%. Thats why this report about the new promising challenger got me all excited: lab efficiencies of 80% (theoretical 92%) - from infrared light! The technology is called a nanoantenna skin. And because it doesn't simply collect energy from the visible light spectrum, it even can harness the Earth's solar energy it stores during the day and radiates at night.

Nanoantennas are essentially gold coils manufactured to respond to a particular frequency of light, supported within a flexible polyurethane sheet. But these gold coils are stackable, allowing different types of coils to exploit more available light frequencies. Essentially, they are but miniature heatsinks that are very, very good at capturing the heat from light (or a variety of other heat-producing sources). The only catch is that while the coils are excellent at trapping energy, we haven't figured out just how to translate that energy to a viable AC current (a process which will require other new materials).

Hopefully that day will come soon...

In the meantime, both C:Net and CleanTech report that IKEA will start selling solar panels for the masses.

(Guy - read and despair - or at any rate, get ready to assemble, without your screwdriver! For more on this inside joke, read Guys' blog post about his move, and why the Swedish concept of elegant simplicity sometimes sucks... but I digress.)

[With inputs from Raju, C:Net, DailyTech, Wired and the GIZ]