On April fools day 1939, Mitsubishi launched a new product. It was the A6M Zero carrier based fighter plane, rumored to have been inspired by the H2 that Howard Hughes created. On December 7th, 1941 we learned the hard way that Mitsubishi had built a damn fine product.
Thankfully, these days we are at peace with Japan, and by extension Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi is still doing wonderful things with technology, and now we can take full advantage of it.
I’m talking about solar panels, and this company has now set the world record for the most efficient photovoltaic panels with a conversion rate of 18.6 percent; a small but significant improvement over their previous record of 18% in a 160mm square cell.
The supply of silicon has not kept up with the great demand caused by the increased interest in solar technology. This is necessitated the production of more efficient solar panels requiring less silicon and producing more electricity.
To achieve these increases in efficiency Mitsubishi decreased the reflectivity on the surface of the cell by creating a honeycomb texture using laser patterning and wet etching. In addition the company worked to optimize the efficiency of the P-N junction.
Mitsubishi has stated that this new improvement in solar technology will be in production on April Fools Day, 2010. Let’s hope we’re still friends in December.
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How ironic that the oil at Pearl Harbor was spared because Japan was so sure of success and so poor for oil, they left it thinking they could use it later. Electric cars and plug in hybrid electric vehicles in conjunction with wind and PV can make oil wars obsolete.