Mr. Marks says solar panels made with Lepcon or Lumeloid, the
materials he patented, could turn 70 to 80 percent of the energy from
sunlight they receive into electricity. Most photovoltaic cells are
only about 15 percent efficient. The electricity would cost three or
four cents per kilowatt hour, as against about 10 cents a kilowatt
hour for commercially generated electric power. Most photovoltaic
cells produce energy for around $1 per kilowatt hour.

Typical photovoltaic cells use layers of chemically treated metals
that produce electric current when struck by sunlight. The basic
problem has always been the quantity of current produced per unit cost
of the materials used to produce it.

Lepcon, which was a preliminary design, consists of glass panels
covered with a vast array of millions of aluminum or copper strips,
each less than a micron or thousandth of a millimeter wide. As
sunlight hits the metal strips, the energy in the light is transferred
to electrons in the metal. which escape at one end in the form of
electricity.

Lumeloid uses a similar approach. but substitutes cheaper, filmlike
sheets of plastic for the glass panels and covers the plastic with
conductive polymers, long chains of molecular plastic units. Lumeloid
is easier to manufacture and handle than Lepcon. The company declines,
for competitive reasons, to identify the chemicals it uses to produce
Lumeloid polymers.

There are as yet no large-scale working prototypes of Mr. Mark's
invention, and some scientists have expressed caution in assessing it.
"It is beyond our technological fabrication capability at present,"
said Dr. Edward D. Wolf, the director of the national research
facility for submicron structures at Cornell University, who has
studied Mr Marks's work."But it's an interesting concept."

Professor Stuart A Rice, dean of the division of physical sciences at
the University of Chicago, has also reviewed the patents.

"It is an intellectually challenging idea," he said, "I do not know
whether it can be brought into practice, so I don't know whether to be
optimistic or pessimistic. If it turned out to work, and was very
efficient, it would he very significant."

Mr Marks said he believed Lumeloid would be available for commercial
use within two or three years. He added that Lepcon and Lumeloid could
be used to create lasers, an application he said he had discussed with
the Pentagon in conjunction with Westinghouse.

Mr Marks conceded that getting his ideas to the major prototype stage
would cost around $5 million. Commercial production of solar panels
would cost between $30 million to $5O million, he estimated, and the
preliminary work, supported by Westinghouse, is now underway, he said.

Phototherm plans a $15 million initial public stock offering soon to
help subsidize development of the solar patents.

Mr Marks has more than 100 other patents, Including the film used on
polarized sunglasses, and the process to make 3D movies, and he was
also an energy adviser to president John F. Kennedy.

More information can be obtained from patents; 4,574,161 & 4,720,642.

Dr. Alvin Marks receives patents for two solar power technologies:
Lepcon and Lumeloid. Lepcon consists of glass panels covered with
millions of aluminum or copper strips, each less than a thousandth of
a millimeter wide. As sunlight hits the metal strips, light energy is
transferred to electrons in the metal, which escape at one end in the
form of electricity. Lumeloid is similar but substitutes cheaper,
film-like sheets of plastic for the glass panels and covers the
plastic with conductive polymers

        1994
The first solar dish generator to use a free-piston Stirling engine is
hooked up to a utility grid.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory develops a solar cell made of
gallium indium phosphide and gallium arsenide; it's the first one of
its kind to exceed 30% conversion efficiency.
1998
On August 6, a remote-controlled, solar-powered aircraft,
"Pathfinder," sets an altitude record of 80,000 feet on its 39th
consecutive flight in Monrovia, California — higher than any
prop-driven aircraft to date.

Subhendu Guha, a scientist noted for pioneering work in amorphous
silicon, leads the invention of flexible solar shingles, a roofing
material and state-of-the-art technology for converting sunlight to
electricity on buildings
        Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory
develop a record-breaking prototype solar cell that measures 18.8%
efficient, topping the previous record for thin-film cells by more
than 1%. Cumulative installed photovoltaic capacity reaches 1000
megawatts, worldwide.

Mr. Marks says solar panels made with Lepcon or Lumeloid, the
materials he patented, could turn 70 to 80 percent of the energy from
sunlight they receive into electricity.

There are as yet no large-scale working prototypes of Mr. Mark's
invention,

Mr. Marks

I like the idea of flat mirror reflectors to concentrate the
light , a lot cheaper than parabolic mirrors

excerpts

In Israel's Negev Desert, engineer Hy Brown is building small
prototype homes that run entirely on solar power. He explains, "We
have the opportunity by putting solar power on each house, more than
what the house(s) use, of turning each house into a mini power plant
which is a different way to provide energy for the Neg. Desert."
Down the road, other work is being done here at the Ben Gurion
National Solar Energy Center. Researchers are working with
concentrated solar collectors that resemble satellite dishes.
Director David Faiman says, "The great feature about concentration
photovoltaics that it solves two problems at the same time. The first
problem is that it uses less expensive photovoltaic material than a
conventional photovoltaic panel. Instead of collecting the light on
the panel itself you collect the light on glass and then you
concentrate it onto a very small amount of this material. When you do
it this way, the efficiency of the cells turns out to be very much
higher than it is if you don't concentrate the light."

Faiman says such concentrated solar panels are more than twice as
efficient as conventional solar panels. He says strategically placing
them throughout the desert could provide limitless environmentally
friendly solar energy.


Energy Conversion fashions solar power modules based on "thin
film" silicon that can be designed into roofs for big-box stores,
airplane hangars and other commercial buildings. With the financial
success of First Solar, investors have taken a shine to the thin-film
concept.

FSLR, however, uses cadmium telluride to convert the sun's rays into
electric power. Both formulas bypass the supply bottleneck and price
inflation that bedevil makers of conventional, slab-style silicon
solar cells, and that's key. Part of Energy Conversion's edge is also
the lightness and flexibility of its wares, making them a convenient
and cost-effective feature in construction.

With its history rooted in R&D, the company has struggled to get its
act together as an efficient manufacturer and sales machine. Now,
tributes

Mr. Marks says solar panels made with Lepcon or Lumeloid, the
materials he patented, could turn 70 to 80 percent of the energy from
sunlight they receive into electricity.

Mr. Marks says solar panels made with Lepcon or Lumeloid, the
materials he patented, could turn 70 to 80 percent of the energy from
sunlight they receive into electricity.
[snip crap]

I like the idea of flat mirror reflectors to concentrate the
light , a lot cheaper than parabolic mirrors

Mr. Marks says solar panels made with Lepcon or Lumeloid, the
materials he patented, could turn 70 to 80 percent of the energy from
sunlight they receive into electricity.

In sci.physics habshi <hab... at (no spam) anony.com> wrote:

        Mr. Marks says solar panels made with Lepcon or Lumeloid, the
materials he patented, could turn 70 to 80 percent of the energy from
sunlight they receive into electricity.

Bullshit.

Only hashbrains the boy idiot would buy into this one.

--
Jim Pennino

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