12-year-old develops new solar cell

[willy88]

http://www.beavertonvalleytimes.com/news/story.php?story_id=122109656865633500
http://www.katu.com/news/local/28432984.html

You may be thinking, "Oh, neato, that kid designed a super-efficient solar cell! Good for him!", but not me.

I'm enraged.

He's two years younger than me, he made a potentially revolutionary technology, and he has the same name as me.

Oh well...

Guess who'll be laughing when I single-handedly build a nuclear powered SSTO spaceplane? It won't be you, William Yuan. No Sirree.

[/satire]

Maybe this technology would mean feasible solar cars. Or completely solar-powered houses. Or powerplants. Or, well, anything...

 

[Urwumpe]

Does not look too new to me... Multispectral cells had also been designed some months ago...

 

[Kaito]

Guess who'll be laughing when I single-handedly build a nuclear powered SSTO spaceplane?

I know you'll be laughing when I discover the secret to hyperspace and is the first person to discover life on other planets.

But dont tell anyone, its a secret

 

[Missioncmdr]

Does not look too new to me... Multispectral cells had also been designed some months ago...

If it is not that new, then why has the technology not taken off yet?

 

[Capt. Speirs]

Waiting for a buyer for my Cold Fusion for a while now.

 

[doggie015]

Guys, keep it down! I am trying to make quantum-energy powered vehicles here (Think Quantum Redshift without the weapons)

 

[Urwumpe]

If it is not that new, then why has the technology not taken off yet?

I would say, production is the key. Only because prototypes exist, this does not mean, they are available for sale.

 

[simonpro]

I don't get what's so revolutionary. This type of solar cell has been around for ages. I remember learning about multispectral cells back in 1st year uni, so they've been around for at least 5 years, probably a lot longer.

 

[JamesG]

If it is not that new, then why has the technology not taken off yet?

Production rate and cost (both of which are related).

It doesn't matter if you DID find "cold fusion" if it cost more than alternatives or what people are willing to pay.

The recent break-thru in a process to cheaply mass produce solar cells via printing technology is much more important IMO.

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Damn, another childhood destroyed by premature ambition

Shouldn't Billy be playing outside? Is anyone telling this kid to enjoy his childhood before he gets shackled to a high-stress job at a blue chip company? Probably not, it seems.

 

[Urwumpe]

I would not be too hard on this.

First of all, children are not really less intelligent as adults, they just lack the experience to use this intelligence for something useful. Letting them do scientific projects is one good way to gather experiences.

Also, such a project is usually still a game, and not more.

But the media should not forget to have some realism on the scientific work of teenagers. They can do great stuff, but usually don't have the experiences to do it as perfect as we expect from adults and trained scientists. Such a invention would be a small side note in an engineering publication. Not more. Only because a teen did it, it does not get better. But it is a great achievement of the boy who did it, none the less, as it shows that he is intelligent and has already some sort of experience.

 

[Sherrif of Nottingham]

-- Removed for simonpro --

Simonpro please remove the quote, i removed the post because you thought it was being racist. Please do the same and remove your quote.

 

[simonpro]

Not to be racist or anything, but where I live it must be a requirement to be Asian to be in the robotics club or academic decathlon. I've tried to go to the robotics competition club, they turned me away before I could show them the program I wrote for heat sneaking missiles. [/dramatized]

If there's one thing that s me off it's people that say "Not to be XYZist but...(insert XYZist comment)"
Obviously you are being racist or else you wouldn't have felt the need to qualify it with "not to be racist".

(edit) Not that there is one thing that bleeps me off, there's lots. This is one of the biggies though.

 

[STSJASON]

Im 13 and I can't even make a simple match rocket work

 

[Pilot7893]

Guys, keep it down! I am trying to make quantum-energy powered vehicles here (Think Quantum Redshift without the weapons)

Oh please! I've been gifted with a 3 mile long spaceship so I can save the Earth from an alien bomb the size of Ceres!

 

[Missioncmdr]

Wow! Your three mile-long spaceship even has its own narrator!

 

[Talon1]

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:weird: Here, I'm 13 years old, and someone one year younger than me just made a more efficient solar cell??!!!!!!! WTF is wrong with the world today??!!!!:suicide:


-----Posted Added-----

Oh please! I've been gifted with a 3 mile long spaceship so I can save the Earth from an alien bomb the size of Ceres!

DUDE!!!!!!!!! I've seen this ship before; it's from a show (or documentary) called
"Alien Planet" that aired in The Discovery Channel; and man I seroisly want to make the ship in orbiter, but the 3D model is too hard.:dry: Also, if I can recall, this ship's name is the "Von Braun".

 

[Hashy]

If it is not that new, then why has the technology not taken off yet?

Solar technology itself ain't new, then why isn't the technology on everyone's roofs?

 

[RocketMan_Len]

The news rather reminds me of the installment of 'Discovery - Project Earth' where they were testing the technologies needed for orbital solar-power collection...

They claimed to get 'more efficiency' by adding a Fresnel lens to concentrate the light onto the cell... but they made the comparison based on the number of cells, rather than the collector area. I kept thinking that a more valid comparison of efficiency would be one solar cell with the Fresnel lens, versus a bank of cells that occupied the same surface-area as the lens did.

Oh, well...

 

[Pilot7893]

DUDE!!!!!!!!! I've seen this ship before; it's from a show (or documentary) called
"Alien Planet" that aired in The Discovery Channel; and man I seroisly want to make the ship in orbiter, but the 3D model is too hard.:dry: Also, if I can recall, this ship's name is the "Von Braun".

Yeah, I just like the design of the ship so much I used it in my daydream

and man I seroisly want to make the ship in orbiter, but the 3D model is too hard.:dry:

Oh, I hear ya man