Construction of Solar Panels

When I first thought about starting this blog the first blogspot web address that I tried to get was: http://diysolarpanels.blogspot.com/ however it was taken. I must say that I did enjoy reading through that blog and I recommend that others who are interested in DIY Solar Panels do the same! Although the blog has not been updated since 2008 the progress that the blogger made on his solar panels is documented very nicely. Also from 2008 I learned about a research group that was investigating transparent transistors. Part of the difficulty with the efficiency of solar panels lies in that fact that it is difficult to actually capture all of the incident sun and convert it into electricity. This is also partly due to the fact that solid electrodes need to be placed on either side of the photovoltaic (PV) cells as well. Additionally the solar panels have to be spread out, convering large areas. I can foresee these transparent transistors being incorporated into stacks of PVs which might help boost efficiencies! Efficiencies may even double. From the best of my knownledge current efficiencies are typcilly around < 15%. If these transistors are incorported and efficiencies reach 30% that would be an incredible advancement for this technology. I would keep an eye on the company XE Solar, I believe they bought out this technology!