that「s pretty cool! the propellers lifted off the ground at 28 miles per hour. and they say there are 12 solar cells built into its wings.

太酷了！飞机飞离地面后，以每小时28英里的速度向高空爬升。技术人员称，飞机的两翼内置有12块太阳能电池。

making solar cells from silicon, the most common approach, can be expensive and relatively inefficient at turning sunlight into electricity.

用硅制造太阳能电池——这是最普通的方法——昂贵而且只能得到很低的光-电转换效率。

such 「sun ship」 would have a large enough surface area to carry the enormous number of solar cells necessary to move any appreciable load.

这种「太阳能飞艇」必须要很大的面积以携带大量的太阳能电池，这样才有可能运载可观的载荷。

it has developed a roll-to-roll manufacturing technique that forms thin-film amorphous silicon solar cells on thin sheets of stainless steel.

它们发明了一种以精密卷绕对位技术在薄不锈钢膜上成型非晶硅太阳能电池的的制造方法。

at a news conference this week, mit researchers showed off the prototypes of their paper thin solar cells by using them to power a small led display.

在本周召开的新闻会议上，麻省理工的研究人员使用他们制作的纸薄太阳能电池雏形展示了如何给led显示屏供能。

off-grid solar cells are also quiet, but they don’t make much power relative to the mini-turbine.

离网太阳能电池也非常安静，但它们无法产生相对于小型涡轮机那么大的电能。

by choosing the right combination of ink and surface it is possible to make efficient solar cells using very little material or energy.

通过选择恰当的墨汁与物体表面相结合，就有可能利用非常少的材料或能源制造出高效的太阳能电池。

by capturing such a broad range of light waves -- wider than normal solar cells -- tandem cqd solar cells can in principle reach up to 42 per cent efficiencies.

通过捕捉这样广泛的光波范围-比普通太阳能电池更广泛-串联胶体量子点太阳能电池原则上可以达到42％的效率。

as prices came down, installations of solar cells in germany shot up.

随着价格的下滑，德国的太阳能电池安装迅速增长。

although solar cells had now penetrated numerous niche markets, the cost of making them still priced them out of the market for grid-connected electricity.

尽管太阳能电池现在已经找到了一大块安身的市场，其生产成本仍然限制着它打进使用电网的市场。

researchers are applying the design to semiconductor materials to make solar cells that they hope will save money on materials costs while still offering high power-conversion efficiency.

研究者正把这项设计应用到制造太阳能电池的半导体材料上，这样他们希望在节省材料成本的同时仍可以提供高效率的能量转换。

「the goal of the current program is to develop high-performance solar cells that are resistant to extreme conditions while achieving high solar electric power conversion efficiency,」 says dr.

当年计划的目标是开发高性能的太阳能电池，这种电池可以在极端环境中工作，同时还具备极高的太阳能/电能转换效能。

you might own a printer that could put this blog on a piece of paper, but you probably don」t own a printer that can print out solar cells to generate solar power from the sun.

大家可以得到一台打印出这篇博文的打印机，但是，却没有一台可以依靠太阳能电池供给而运行的打印机，这种电池通过转化太阳光产生能量。

like the world's tiniest computer i recently blogged about, the solar cells could theoretically be put to use with anything people want to make 「smart.

如同我在最近博客中提到的世界上最小的电脑，这样的太阳能电池理论上可以应用于任何人们想做成“智能」的东西。

the researchers suggest splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen during the day whenever electricity from solar cells is not needed for anything else.

研究人员建议当白天太阳能电池中产生的电流不做它用的时候来把水分解成氢气和氧气。

conventional solar cells use one primary material, which only captures one part of the spectrum efficiently.

传统的太阳能电池主要使用一种材料，只高效捕捉其一部分频段的能量。

a new nanostructured material that absorbs a broad spectrum of light from any angle could lead to the most efficient thin-film solar cells ever.

有一种新型纳米结构原材料，因其可吸收来自各个角度的广谱光源，能制成有史以来最有效的薄膜太阳能电池。

in another building, workers weld solar cells together into strips, then align them by eye on a light box to form the rows and columns of cells that make up a complete solar panel.

在另一个车间里，工人将太阳能电池焊接成一条，然后将这些电池放在一个灯箱中，排成横列和数列，这样就制造成了一个完整的太阳能板。

current solar panels are relatively inefficient, but increasing investment in solar cells is producing better models which capture more energy and cost less to produce.

目前的太阳能电池板是相对低效的，但增加投资可以生产出更好的模型，用以捕获更多的能量并降低成本。