Solar Power Without The Panels?

Despite a significant boom in the demand for solar power and the sophistication of photo-voltaic technology, many people still reluctant to outfit their homes with the hardware that’s needed to take advantage of this free and clean source of energy.

What’s keeping the average home or business owner from taking advantage of the lower utility bills that solar power has to offer? Well, among other things, many are turned off by the idea of plunking large, bulky, black panels on top of their home’s roof.

Thanks to a new technology being developed by scientists at Georgia Tech University, the equipment needed to use solar power might become much more subtle in the near future. MSNBC recently reported that instead of using traditional solar panels, the Georgia Tech scientists are working to capture sunlight and turn it into electricity using fiber optics cables coated with zinc oxide, the same white compound lifeguards slather on their noses. The fiber optic cables, each one two to three times the width of a human hair, could be installed on the roof of a house, car or any other structure with almost total invisibility…

You can read the full article over at Care2 – Capturing Solar Power Without The Panels