Any time you can reduce the amount of something needed, it is a win for the environment. All of the impact of the item is reduced. In this case, researchers have reduced the amount of silicon in their solar cells by about 99%. This is huge!

With this reduction in material, they also managed to keep the efficiency about the same. The article did not specify the exact values, but this level of material reduction will greatly reduce costs. Another benefit to smaller amounts of silicon is that this design allows flexibility in the panels by using silicon wire instead of wafers.

Lets keep our fingers crossed this continues to be everything it appears to be.

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