New Prism Panels Light the Way

As a child at school, you probably encountered prisms: glass shapes designed to reflect light internally, producing rainbows. The chances are that, later in life, you’ve purchased jewelery, ornaments or gift wrap which have been made using laser etching to produce tiny prisms, creating a bright shimmering effect.

It’s this effect which creates the holograms on your credit cards. Now a group of scientists in New York have found away to use prismatic technology to create new, smaller, more affordable solar panels.

Most solar panels
use lenses or mirrors to concentrate light so that it can be turned into electricity. This can be more efficient that the new prism method, but it’s a lot bulkier, limiting what can be done with solar accessories and inventions. The new prism panels are flat, sleek and lightweight, making them easy to incorporate into a variety of gadgets.

They’re resilient enough for use on rooftops but they can also be incorporated directly into your windows. You’ll be able to see out just as well, though your windows will look sparkly from the outside, but all the while your windows will be generating power for your home.

Because they’re so much less bulky and because they’re simple enough to make mass production easy, prism panels are far less expensive than their traditional counterparts. Their designers hope that, in the long term, they could cost less than half as much.

With their attractive, ultra-modern appearance, they’re bound to appeal, and other designers are already working to utilize them in the next generation of solar accessories
and inventions. They’re much easier to carry about, making them especially practical for solar gadgets designed for people on the move.

After all these years of struggling to make progress with traditional solar panels, designers see a bright future in the new prismatic technology. Very soon, solar power could become not only the greenest choice, but also the most affordable choice, even at the stage of installation.