Nanotechnology is currently being used to design renewable energy technologies like solar energy. According to Kurzweil, “the cost per watt of solar energy is coming down rapidly and the total amount of solar energy is growing exponentially. It has in fact been doubling every two years for the past 20 years and is now only eight doublings away from meeting all of the world’s energy needs.”
Sandia Solar Cells have come close to achieving this since they are made of 100 times less material than that of the current solar cells, operating at the same efficiency. Current panels are heavy and massive and require large motors to track them when tracking the sun. Sandia’s cell on the other hand only needs to be moved a fraction of a millimeter for it to track the sun efficiently and it weighs close to nothing.
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