Brilliant 10: Greg Nielson Shrinks Solar Cells to the Size of Glitter
Greg Nielson Courtesy Greg NielsonThe same output of electricity, now with 100 times less silicon Greg Nielson pushes a small jar full of rubbing alcohol across his desk at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. In the jar float shiny solar cells the size of glitter. "If you have panels of these on top of Walmart, you get twice as much power [as conventional photovoltaics] and your costs go down by half," he says. For the past six years, Nielson has worked to dramatically reduce the size of solar cells in order to make them more durable, efficient, and cost-effective. When the Utah native arrived at Sandia in 2004, Nielson was one of the world's leading Greg NielsonAge 38Sandia National Laboratoriesresearchers of optical microelectro-mechanical systems-technology that uses light to drive tiny machines. It was a wrong number in 2005 that led him into solar power. One of Sandia's leading solar...