The first Law of Thermodynamics states that energy cannot not be created or destroyed, only transformed. Light is a form of energy and not just sunlight, man made light count to. So if on average there are 45 lightbulbs in an American home - that's 45 possible miniature power sources. Thin Film Solar Cells (made from amorphous silicon)are perfect for the job: 1) they are flexible, making it easy to make them into light shades to wrap around the lightbulb. 2) Solar cells suffer degradation in how much power they up out when exposed to the actual Sun, but these solar cells will only be indoors preventing degradation. Earch C by GE lightbulb uses 11 Watts each, if you can recycle 3 Watts for one bulb that's 135 Watts that can be put back into the grid - making your entire electric usage more efficient. My project is about making electriccal consumption more efficient and squeezing as much energy out of the grid as possible. Putting unused energy back into the grid is important to me since the power grid is already inefficient. We loose 30% of our power just transporting it to our homes. So it's important to be as efficient as possible with the energy that does make it as well as put some power back in, that way it can power more homes and business.
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