[par @ Dec 6th 2006 3:59PM]

Countries with lots of sun should use this as much as possible. House roofs should be made out of this. What are people/governments waiting for? The savings would be enormous in the long term.

[Matt @ Dec 6th 2006 4:04PM]

Well, to start I would imagine that they are waiting for an actual product. Just because something worked in a laboratory doesn't mean you can all of the sudden stroll on down to your local Walmart and pick one up.

While a 40% efficiency rate is a tremendous breakthrough, there are probably still a lot of problems to solve. For instance, how much does it cost to manufacture one? Doubling the energy output doesn't help a hole lot if it costs 3 times as much to make one.

[uetani @ Dec 6th 2006 4:59PM]

Not necessarily true. What if the resources consumed to create the material are high and the lifetime of the material is short? Unless the total life cycle of the product results in a lower consumption of resources over its competitors the product is fun from a technology standpoint but has no place in general use.