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13 year Kid studies Trees and uses Fibonacci to make Solar Cells 50% more efficient

This is one of these great ideas that are so obvious you wonder why no Silicon Valley Solar company has come up with that yet. It takes a 13-year old kid to show how solar cells are positioned the best way.

Aug 19 2011, 3:55am CDT | by

13 year Kid studies Trees and uses Fibonacci to make Solar Cells 50%
 
 
 

13-year old Aidan Dwyer won one of the Young Naturalist Award 2011, but that does not give him credit enough for what he actually came up with. Aidan studied how trees grow their leaves. The leaves grow based on the Fibonacci sequence (0,1,1,2,3,5,8,14,21,...). Aidan wanted to know why and the "obvious" answer is that this arrangement collects the most sunlight. Aidan has created a prototype solar tree and found out that arranging solar cells like leaves on a tree yields to 50% more efficiency. Aidan already got his findings already filed as a patent. Expect solar tree forests to replace conventional solar farms in the near future.

More details on Aidan Dwyer's research can be found here. Via TreeHugger.

Update:
Looks like the experiment is flawed. I am not a science expert. So we relied on the fact that Aidan got an award for his work. Either way it is a cool project.

Updates

Photos of the day: Giant tree art and more amazing images

Source: Yahoo News: Business

Mike De Butts adds the finishing touches to a giant Baobab Tree sculpture entitled 'Under the Baobab', outside the Southbank Centre on May 24, 2012 in London, England. The Pirate Technics' installation is made from a ...
Full article at: Yahoo News: Business  More like this  2 days ago, 10:00am CDT

Becoming Real On 'Solar Dreams / Neon Decay'

Source: Clash Music

Becoming Real has spoken to ClashMusic about the construction of his new mini-album 'Solar Dreams / Neon Decay'. From inner city to outer space, that's Becoming Real. Born Toby Ridler, the producer has used his r ...
Full article at: Clash Music  More like this  2 days ago, 8:15am CDT

U.K. Says Solar Subsidy Cuts Will Come Into Affect on Aug. 1

Source: Bloomberg.com

The U.K. government will impose cuts on solar subsidies beginning on Aug. 1, a month later than planned, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said in a statement in London today. The government delivered results of its consultation on ...
Full article at: Bloomberg.com  More like this  2 days ago, 7:08am CDT

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<a href="/latest_stories/all/all/2" rel="author">Luigi Lugmayr</a>
Luigi is the founding chief Editor of I4U News and brings over 15 years experience in the technology field to the ever evolving and exciting world of gadgets. He started I4U News back in 2000 and evolved it into vibrant technology magazine.
Luigi can be contacted directly at ml@i4u.com. Luigi posts regularly on LuigiMe.com about his experience running I4U.

 

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