Quote Originally Posted by a completely inoffensive name View Post
There is already a solar collector that collects energy from all visible wavelengths.



It's not all that much more economical than other methods of energy generation. If you are talking about photo voltaic cells then you got some problems. I am not an expert in the technology, but my understanding of it is that if you want a wider range of wavelengths to be absorbed you are going to need compounds that either absorb wider ranges or you are going to need multiple different compounds to each be turning the photons into excited electrons.

Obviously this problem is evident if we are talking about a world where the rare earths are held hostage by china. Also, it says nothing of its economics simply by being able to absorb the spectrum. What will matter is how efficiently it will do the job. Off the top of my head, I think commercial solar panels are...30% efficient? If we had solar panels that were 70-80% efficient that would suit our needs just fine for many applications without trying to branch out the spectrum absorbed.
I can't remember what the percentages were but it was a multi-layered cell. The problem was in getting the hexagonal "pixels" to align perfectly on each layer. That is a reflecting concentrator; different.

I saw Die Another Day again this weekend, maybe we should make it out of diamonds.