Hot Renewable: Wide Interest in Solar Power

Meanwhile, recent technological breakthroughs may make home solar power much more affordable. An interdisciplinary team at Western Washington University (WWU) announced in
September a $970,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for additional research on a new kind of solar collector. Traditional photovoltaic panels use only the red band of visible light. The WWU team’s collector uses colored polymers to gather light from the whole spectrum. The increased efficiency allows electrical generation on overcast days and will cut the cost of solar panels by as much as 90 percent, according to a WWU press release.