According to an announcement from the university, new "solar funnels" use carbon nanotubes to concentrate solar energy up to 100 times more than conventional photovoltaic panels. One potential application cited by MIT was antennas that can capture energy from the sun, allowing for the next generation of solar panels to have considerably higher effectiveness.
"Instead of having your whole roof be a photovoltaic cell, you could have little spots that were tiny photovoltaic cells, with antennas that would drive photons into them," Michael Strano, an associate professor of chemical engineering who led the research, was quoted as saying in the announcement.
Along with benefiting solar energy systems, the researchers also noted that other potential applications for this technology could include advanced telescopes and night vision goggles.
Researchers around the world have been making substantial progress in recent years toward making solar energy achieve cost parity with traditional fossil fuels. Considerable progress has been so far with a variety of new materials now being used to generate more clean energy than ever.
