Would you like to know more? This is AMAZING! A century from now people are going to look back at this the same way that James Watt realized you could condense steam in a separate chamber in the engine! Its gonna change everything!
Very cool, it would be nice to see comparisons between these and other solar cells in terms of efficiency.
Seriously, there's been all sorts of cool alternate energy sources that looked great in theory lately. I think the future looks bright. But it's going to be a while before these get scaled up into production, and lots of the cool ones don't ever seem to completely pan out.
What makes it interesting is that the oil is not burned. Given the huge number of uses for oil in our modern technology, simply burning the stuff up for energy makes less and less sense. The problem, of course, is finding alternate energy sources that are not prohibitively expensive. This just might be the ticket. I'm willing to bet that the amount of energy such a cell can generate over its lifetime is significantly greater than the amount of energy that would be gained by burning it. And if it's less polluting, then it is really a positive step in every way.
Actually, depending on the nature of the plastic involved it may not even involve petroleum any more. They make a very pleasant type out of artificial lemon smell and carbon dioxide believe it or not. But the fact that plastic is assumed to be a petroleum derivative in the context of alternate energy sources makes for a decent joke. Notice that post ends with a smiley and the next post begins with 'seriously.' No? Ah well, it must be difficult to to be a disembodied brain in the nutrient bath posting from France, Switzerland, and/or Madagascar.
Cool. I'll tell my chemistry students about this today. We just discussed the photoelectric effect last week.
Sounds great and I hope it rolls out. However, as has been pointed out, the do called holy grail of clean energy has been heard many times before yet never panned out.