Sunny-side up

Regular readers of this column already know that new solar-tech innovations abound, including a clear solar cell created by UCLA researchers in September. In late October, researchers at Stanford University announced that they built a solar cell made entirely of carbon, which, if perfected, could be cheaper to produce than today's silicon-based cells. Meanwhile, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications, Heinrich Hertz Institute HHI in Germany are developing black silicon solar cells which can convert infrared light to energy—something that traditional silicon solar cells cannot. This could lead to higher-efficiency solar production.