Christmas is here and people are busy shopping, decorating their Christmas trees, or making snow angels and throwing snowballs at nosy neighbours. At this time, Sandia Labs is busy creating something just as fascinating as the first snow flake, something that would help the environment as well.

The snowflake shaped photovoltaic cells developed by researchers at Sandia National Laboratories require 100 times less material to produce the same amount of energy generated by a 6” square solar panel. Each photovoltaic cell on an array of these snowflake cells work independently so that faulty working of a cell would not harm that of the other cells in the array. The strange shape of these photovoltaic cells also make it easy for them to be incorporated into different materials such as clothes, building surfaces, and electronic gadgets.

These snowflake shaped photovoltaic cells by Sandia Labs provide for a cost effective and more efficient means to exploiting solar energy (at 15% efficiency). This, and the modular nature of these photovoltaic cells, ensures that it can be used to much satisfaction in the near future.

Via: Inhabitat