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Photo by Patrick Gillooly, Courtesy of MIT 3. Solar thermal power in a flat panel Professor Gang Chen has been working on a revolutionary new way to make solar power micro solar thermal which could theoretically produce electricity at 8 times the efficiency of the word's best solar panel. Solar thermal usually requires huge arrays of mirrors that heat up an element to run a steam turbine. Chen's system, which is about the size and shape of a typical solar PV panel, uses nanostructured thermoelectric generators that capture the heat differential created by the sun's light striking the top of the panel. Because it is a thermal process, the panels can heat up from ambient light even on an overcast day, and these panels can be made from very inexpensive materials. 4. A virus to improve nano-solar cell efficiency MIT graduate students recently engineered a virus called M13 (which normally attacks bacteria) that works to precisely space apart carbon nanotubes so they can be used to effectively convert solar energy. The virus acts, in a sense, as a tiny machining tool to pattern the nanotubes properly creating a jump from about 8 percent efficiency to 10.6 percent efficiency a jump of nearly onethird. 5. Transparent solar cell could turn windows into power plants The world's cities are packed with miles and miles of glass. What if all that glass could be used to harness the sun's rays while maintaining their transparency? This idea has been out there for a while, but current attempts have resulted in terrible efficiencies (less than 1 percent) and tend to block too much light, rendering the window useless. Electrical engineering professor Vladimir Bulovic has made a breakthrough that could eliminate two-thirds of the costs of installing thin-film technology by incorporating a layer of new transparent organic PV cells into the window glazing. The MIT team believes it can reach a whopping 12 percent efficiency at hugely reduced costs over thin film solar cells. This is the stuff that Star Trek is made of, and it's a shame that our elected leaders see little value in spurring the next generation of energy tecnology rather than preserving tax cuts for oil and coal companies who are currently making record profits while spending millions on Capitol Hill to fight the very incentives that would unlock a 21st century energy revolution.