# New photovoltaic technology from the Philippines
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 1, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067 "2021-03-01T22:16:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2021, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067/21 "2021-03-03T10:14:32Z")
> [@Melbourne](#):
>
> The idea that vertical solar cells are good is so obvious that it has been thought of a million times, and the reason that we don’t have vertical solar cells is that it’s a worthless idea.
Yeah, same for the ‘vertical farms’ that keep getting hyped. The amount of solar energy arriving on the earth has a finite value - if you stack your solar collection vertically, you might save land space, but you’re not making more light arrive from the sun - you’re just shading the things behind you.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2021, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067/22 "2021-03-03T10:19:35Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#):
>
> Maybe. Or they convince people that there are magic solutions to very hard problems if we just ‘try hard enough’, and therefore they don’t actually have to make hard choices.
>
> In the meantime, scammers are making bank on magical ‘green’ technologies like the Waterseer, or the PlayPump, or solar freakin’ roadways, or other ‘disruptive’ green tech that actually doesn’t work, or doesn’t work at scale.
Yeah, I get what you mean, but I think there is utility in spectacular failure too. Anyone with a few dozen brain cells to rub together predicted that Solar Roadways could not possibly work, and yet it seems that had to be tangibly proven, and then laughed at. It’s almost as if that was a thing that had to happen, so the general populace can stop hoping for it.
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2021, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067/23 "2021-03-03T19:42:20Z")
I’m not reading the article about this prize as anything breathless. Simply a potentially useful clever idea that might get developed to help marginally.
UV is light that gets through clouds well and scattered and bounced around lots and that we like to keep out of the insides of our buildings. Solar cells that harvest it have had limited success.
This is recognition of a clever idea to harvest this unexploited portion of the spectrum that is less reliant on being in a direct line since it scatters and bounced so much. Possibly cheaply. Maybe not but a 40K prize to explore it with. Fun.
As for maturity of power. Battery costs, solar panel costs, are a fraction of what they were a decade ago. Rapid changes. By lots of improvements at the margins and economies of scale. Something that has been possible only because it isn’t so mature yet.
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2021, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067/24 "2021-03-03T20:08:42Z")
I just wanted to know more about fruits & vegetables fluorescing. Never knew they could do that. If I eat enough salad or peach cobbler might I start to glow? Just kidding, but really, what’s up with that?
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2021, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067/25 "2021-03-03T21:18:07Z")
Most organic compounds fluoresce to some degree. It’s nothing special-- It just means they glow when exposed to ultraviolet light. And most sources of UV are also sources of visible, and usually, the directly-reflected visible light is much brighter than the fluorescence.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2021, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067/26 "2021-03-03T21:47:03Z")
Maybe the gap between window panes could be filled with scorpions.
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### Author:  [@SoToasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoToasty)
#### Post date: [March 3, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067/27 "2021-03-03T21:49:41Z")
> [@Johanna](#):
>
> If I eat enough salad or peach cobbler might I start to glow? Just kidding, but really, what’s up with that?
Please stay away from the peach cobbler. We don’t need any more orange personnel
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### Author:  [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2021, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-photovoltaic-technology-from-the-philippines/934067/28 "2021-03-25T10:50:20Z")
Others are working on similar ideas.
> **[These Transparent Solar Cells Make Any Window Generate Energy](https://scientificmindset.com/these-transparent-solar-cells-make-any-window-generate-energy/)**
>
> Harnessing solar power in the home currently means installing solar panels on rooftops or, if Elon Musk is successful, solar tiles. But Michigan State University (MSU) has other ideas. It wants houses to generate a lot of solar energy, but without...
> The concept of transparent solar panels includes specific properties to guide the ultraviolet and infrared spectrum of light through reflection and refraction to the edges of the glass which are to shine with this light.
>
> the process of refraction of this light towards the edges greatly reduces the efficiency, as a large part of it is lost due to inefficient refraction and reflection, and part due to scattering.
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