Solar panel breakthrough paves way for ‘utility-scale’ space farms

[Social Media]

Scientists have discovered how to double the efficiency of an ultra-lightweight solar cell, which they claim could be used to harvest the Sun’s energy in space at a never-before-seen scale.

The next-generation solar panels, built by a team from the University of Pennsylvania, use layers that are over a thousand times thinner than a human hair, yet capable of absorbing a comparable amount of sunlight to commercially available solar cells. The extreme thinness earned them the label two-dimensional, or 2D TMDC, as they are only a few atoms thick.

[jaideedave]

Great news...but where are we going to store all this power when the sun goes down?

Is the technology there?

[phetphet]

7 minutes ago, jaideedave said:

Great news...but where are we going to store all this power when the sun goes down?

Is the technology there?

That's going to be one long cable to bring the electricity down to Earth.