GE Genius: Danielle Merfeld
The energy coming from the sun is somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 watts per square meter. Averaged over the entire year, even up here in the Northeast, which is not particularly famous for sunshine, we’re at ~3000 watt hours per square meter per day. That’s a substantial amount of energy– it is no wonder that there has been a lot of interest in capturing energy from the sun.
But, what words come to your mind when you think about solar energy? Do you picture large expensive installations? Not too many people picture thin, flexible and cheap solar panels. That is what my colleague Danielle and her team are working on. Thin film semiconductor technology in conjunction with advanced coatings is revolutionizing solar energy. In this video Danielle talks about these exciting new technologies–take a look! There are a lot of challenges ahead of us in meeting our energy demands, but I find it very encouraging to see the technologies that are coming to bear in these areas. I hope you do as well.
