In matters relating to the Mother Star, Core77 point out a company claiming to build higher-efficiency solar collectors: instead of a flat photo-voltaic cell across the entire collection area, a small-but-more-apparently-more-efficient cell is placed at the focus of a curved mirror:
Now wait just a minute, there. Photons, check. Primary and secondary mirrors, check. CCD-analogue, check. Yes, it’s the world’s smallest, single-band, optical telescope. I for one welcome the prospect of roofs lined with arrays of Solar observatories.
Not to step lightly over the glorious history of start-ups in Mountain View, CA, I am sure that SolFocus have the semi-conductor physics well in hand, though their website contains jargon commensurate with the field of solid-state physics an ambitious new-energy company, and I am not able to understand properly how the cell in the middle is different from regular photo-voltaic cells. Upon reflection, I think we are supposed to conclude that it is exactly the same, but because the cells are the expensive part of the collector and mirrors are cheap, the design provides the same energy as a larger collector at a smaller cost.
In any event, it’s interesting and exciting, like spintronics, about which more needs to be written, and with more clarity.
Letters to Nature 
