New 3d Solar Panels

Jedi -- Not sure what you mean by 3d solar panels; but here's a possibility: Google "solyndra" and go to their web site.

They may or may not be ready to sell to you. As far as I know they are not selling to the general market or distributors yet.

Ed Weldon

theres a newly discovered 3d solar concept, this was discovered by a 12 year old. Supposedlly this is going to be 500 times more efficient than the normal solar panels.

Jedi -- I Googled "3d solar cells" and found a good bit of information on the subject and the story about William Yuan, the 12 year old 7th grade student that is working on it. That is one bright kid! The actual discovery research was at Georgia Tech; but William Yuan found very important new potential improvements. I should point out here that the "500%" efficiency improvement has to do with actual light absorption of the new cell coatings and some difficulty the journalists have in translating the words of scientists into their own writing. Actual cell efficiency depends on additional factors.

I see from links I found in that Google search that Applied Materials is involved. I retired from Applied in 2002 after working there for 12 years. They make the production equipment that can be adapted to the processes needed to produce this new type of solar cell in high volume. To get some idea of when this new technology will be ready for the market watch Applied Materials and their public statements about new products.

Although I no longer have any connection to my former employer I know a good bit about how fast they can move when they see a new market opportunity. I'm sure they are already testing the required processes on 300mm production tools in their research labs. Unless they run into unusual problems scaling the processes I'd expect them to be shipping the first tools specifically set up for the 3d solar cell process within the next 2 years, maybe sooner.

In the interest of full disclosure I need to tell you that I presently own Applied Materials (AMAT) common stock in my personal portfolio. (Hence my enthusiasm, albeit pointed at sometime in the future given the current stock price)

Ed Weldon

Ah! new blood with a mind not yet disabled from years of debilitating instruction.

Here's a couple of web-sites with 3D Solar stuff. http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20090417/168957/, http://www.katu.com/news/28432984.html.

Should be able to buy these 3D SP's very soon, P.S. they will cost more than reg. Solar Pannels/Cells

I contacted a company: Kyosemi.co.jp.

They have papers out dating back to 2007 regarding a product they branded Sphelar. It is a 99.999 pure silicone sphere created by dropping resin into a limited gravity tube and by the time the sphere solidifies and lands it is perfectly spherical.

These spheres are coated and placed into reflector trays so they register incident as well as direct light, rendering them omni-directional and 60% more efficient than flat panels.

I do not know if they are in commercial production yet.