I was going to post this earlier, but I went to Wikipedia to brush up on photovoltaics and found myself reading about the Omega particle.
Hmm... 999 nines of purity (that is, impurities are no more than one part in 10^999). Lenses and mirrors that bend/reflect every incident photon, absorbing none. Materials with impossible properties, like semiconductors with exactly-tuned bandgaps and high-efficiency fluorescent materials with matching emission spectra (this combination, especially if the semiconductor has high carrier mobility, would allow for solar cells many times more efficient than current state of the art).
Interestingly, one of my many never-fleshed-out ideas for mainline Fenspace is a character for whom Handwavium acts pretty much like this. His sole exception – a black-box crystalline-'Wave powerplant – cut its output to levels sufficient for station-keeping and life-support only once he reached L5 and dissolved into a puddle of goo once he hooked up his solar panels and other power systems.
(And really, I'm only slightly impatient for more Candle. I'm more curious about what happened to The South is Rising.)
Hmm... 999 nines of purity (that is, impurities are no more than one part in 10^999). Lenses and mirrors that bend/reflect every incident photon, absorbing none. Materials with impossible properties, like semiconductors with exactly-tuned bandgaps and high-efficiency fluorescent materials with matching emission spectra (this combination, especially if the semiconductor has high carrier mobility, would allow for solar cells many times more efficient than current state of the art).
Interestingly, one of my many never-fleshed-out ideas for mainline Fenspace is a character for whom Handwavium acts pretty much like this. His sole exception – a black-box crystalline-'Wave powerplant – cut its output to levels sufficient for station-keeping and life-support only once he reached L5 and dissolved into a puddle of goo once he hooked up his solar panels and other power systems.
(And really, I'm only slightly impatient for more Candle. I'm more curious about what happened to The South is Rising.)