The way solar panels are mostly designed these days is that they need direct sunlight to work. It also requires those massive panels to set those kinds of limits on where they’re placed and how they’re used, which in turn hinders their potential, but that could change in the future thanks to student Carvey Ehren Maigue.
Maigue is a student at Mapau University in the Philippines and has developed a prototype solar film that doesn’t actually need direct sunlight to work. The films were made using luminescent particles made from fruit and vegetable waste, which in turn serve to capture ultraviolet rays, which are then converted to visible light and used to generate energy.
This in turn solves a number of issues such as what to do with the waste we generate from our food and also how it can continue to generate energy even when the sky is cloudy. Based on the 3×2 foot panel prototype, it appears it could generate enough power to charge two phones a day, so scaling it up could potentially help power larger devices or possibly even entire buildings.
Not to mention that the films are flexible too, meaning the potential for use in other applications is there. So imagine an electric car covered in this solar film and self-powered without having to stop and charge as often. We have no idea when this technology will be commercialized, but it sounds promising.
Filed in . Read more about Solar. Source: bgr
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