At first I thought his article was written by The Onion. Then I thought it was written by a fool. But then I realized it’s a simple, fact-free “Progressive” propaganda piece.
First, I love how “avert the energy and climate change crises” is stated as a fact, you know, like gravity and the Earth spinning on it axis.
But wait, there’s more! We next follow that premise with a “credible” account of a miracle invention by a crackpot inventor that is still “on paper only”, apparently defies the laws of thermodynamics (you know, like a perpetual motion machine would), but wait, the laws of thermodynamics don’t apply in this particular case after all, the “invention” has some “credence” because ONE other solar researcher says it MIGHT, produces 10 times more energy than current solar panels (which must mean no existing panel is currently more than 10% efficient or we run into that “impossible” issue again), and yet is not just TEN times better, but somehow is also TWENTY times better also.
Whew. OK, I could go on, but got tired. Still, I think you see my drift here.
Thermoelectric “generator” units create electricity due to temperature differential. Hot on one side cold on the other, etc.
They exist, and are cheaper and far more reliable over time than solar panels. There appears to be little to fail, they’re mostly ceramic from what I can tell.
If this guy’s efforts end up creating a solar thermoelectric device that’s cheaper and more reliable than a solar panel as well as producing more electricity, it’s a good thing in my mind, whether or not the theoretically ultra-efficient nature of the invention pans out fully or turns out to be exaggerated.
Amorphous is really cheap to make, Crystalline is what you usually see and the Triple Junction is very expensive and seen in research environments.
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