Could luminescent solar concentrators make solar power more affordable?
If you’ve installed solar panels on your roof, chances are you did it more to help the environment than to save money on your power bill. With the current cost of solar technology, it can take many years to even start to recoup your investment. A new take on an existing solar-power technology could change that. Solar panels use semiconductors, usually silicon-based, to turn sunlight into electricity. These semiconductors work as photovoltaic cells — when sunlight hits the cell, the silicon absorbs the energy in the light waves. This energy excites the electrons in the silicon, which break loose. Free-flowing electrons become electricity (see How Solar Cells Work to learn more). This setup is inherently expensive because, first, semiconductors are costly, and second, because it’s not terribly efficient. Some of the sun’s energy is lost to heat, and a lot of it doesn’t
