Friday, October 01, 2010

Alt. Energy Update: Solar Panels 2.0 - Excitons



About a year ago a good friend of mine and I were having lunch up at UCLA. We got onto the topic of alternative energy and I expressed my belief that within the next twenty years today's solar panels would resemble a Commodore 64 computer - in other words, cutting edge at the time but essentially a non-starter.

This new discovery by researchers at the University of Wyoming and Colorado State may be the next evolution in creating the next generation of solar panels. In my opinion there are two endless resources that if we could harness and use for our energy consumption we could quite literally change the world (this is hardly a unique thought) - those resources are of course the Sun and our Oceans. I believe we are now laying the groundwork for an explosion of new energy sources that will set the earth on a prosperity boom unlike anything ever witnessed to date.

Of course we have some real short term issues that could very well drag us into multiple depressions around the globe first. While I am quite gloomy about what we have wrought for our future generations fiscally, I am quite ecstatic about what technology, bio-technology will unleash in the future.

If you'd like to read more about this new technology (which is still in its infancy), click the headline above.

Scott Dauenhauer CFP, MSFP, AIF