Photo by Mose Buchele/StateImpact Texas

Xiaoyang Zhu of the University of Texas has made a surprising breakthrough in solar power.

By almost any measure, 2011 was a rough year for solar power in the U.S. Federal subsidies to Solyndra became the focus of a congressional investigation after the company went bankrupt. Other solar outfits are feeling pressure on two fronts: low-cost Chinese-manufactured panels are driving prices down around the world, and electricity from America’s newly unleashed natural gas reserves is making power from renewable sources seem less economical.

But at the end of the year, a scientist in Austin has brought a little sun into the forecast. Meet Xiaoyang Zhu, a chemistry professor at the University of Texas, and director of the Energy Frontier Research Center.

For the last few years Zhu and his team have been working on a way to dramatically increase the amount of energy harvested from Solar technology. Now, they think they’ve done it.   Continue Reading →