Xtreme Energetics has investigated the possibility of using mechanical trackers to perform the same light-focusing duties as other solar array manufacturers have. However, HP’s transparent transistor can do the job electronically, rather than mechanically, and significantly reduce the costs of such an installation. Such a solar array is known as a concentrating photovoltaic (or CPV) solar array. To date, CPV arrays are fairly expensive and cannot store energy, making them less useful. They also work best in specific sections of the world — those with the highest levels of solar radiation, such as the southwest United States and northern Africa.
Energy Net on 21 Aug 08There are two different aspects to bear in mind when speculating on the future of energy. First, which will be the energy source? And, secondly, what will the energy vector of the future be? Let us now consider both issues. In 1960, physicist Freeman Dyson indicated, more or less directly, in an article in Science magazine on the search for extraterrestrial civilizations titled "Search for Artificial Stellar Sources of Infrared Radiation" the importance of solar energy in the development of any civilization. In that article Dyson pointed out that a technologically more advanced civilization than ours would build so-called Dyson Spheres, spherical structures surrounding a star, with the aim of taking maximum advantage of the radiation emitted. Therefore, his idea was that the future of an advanced civilization would necessarily opt for making the most of solar energy
