Green Daily

Silicon, not just for breasts anymore -- or microchips. The demand for this precious element is so high that it's got makers of solar equipment looking for alternatives to conventional silicon-hogging crystalline panels. Thin-film solar sheets use only .5% of the silicon needed to make crystalline panels, and these skinny cells might be the answer to making solar power cheaper and more abundant. Might, that's if the solar sheets can be made more efficient in gathering energy.

Right now, thin-film technology gathers about 6% of available sunlight. Compare that to the 15% that traditional crystalline panels collect, and it's not so impressive. Even so, solar sheets are already about 60 cents cheaper per watt, and they're less conspicuous than bulky solar panels -- since they can be attached to office building windows.

Developers of the technology hope to boost their efficiency rates to 8.5 or 9% in the near future. Modest advances in thin-film solar sheets could make these babies very practical for anyone looking to get into alternative energy -- they may turn out to be a good investment, not that I give stock advice.