A thin, cheap solar concentrator to replace expensive solar cells in conventional flat solar panels may be a step closer to becoming a reality.

The news came from HyperSolar. The California outfit yesterday announced it has successfully completed a prototype design of its thin solar concentrator. Hypersolar’s (more…)

Shrink Nanotechnologies is one of several companies that is using bioplastics to find a new way of making devices that will minimize the use of increasingly-scarce rare metals.

The company’s OptiSol Solar Concentrator is billed as a nanotechnology-based plastic solar concentrator and solar film. Traditional silicon solar cells absorb only a small fraction of the total incident solar radiation potential, with a majority of the light either reflected or converted to thermal energy.

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