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Flexible plastic solar cells will go everywhere the sun shines, produced in long rolls, covering roofs and even windows (the cells can be made transparent). Ho

by ph0rque 16y ago

Flexible plastic solar cells will go everywhere the sun shines, produced in long rolls, covering roofs and even windows (the cells can be made transparent). How would transparent solar cells work? Would the light coming in be part of the <90% of the light not being converted to electricity?

mseebach 16y ago
I don't know, but presumably the solar cells would primarily absorb light from the invisible part of the spectrum, ie. infrared. Your cats are going to hate you for it, though (no more hot spots in the sun..).
- ph0rque 16y ago
  Thankfully I don't have cats :~)... however, that does bring up a good point about some of the sunlight being converted to electricity instead of heating your house passively.
- eru 16y ago
  The solar cells would probably not be very efficient. So there would still be lots of heat.
Vivtek 16y ago
First thing I noticed, yeah.
ph0rque 16y ago
The next step would be to have the solar cell also be an automatic shade: more light --> less electricity, and vice versa.