Solar power
While solar power is extremely efficient in the sense that it does not require the depletion of any natural resources and is renewable, it is not as efficient as it can be. How so? The majority of silicon solar panels boast only about 15 percent efficiency, depending on the model – they do not convert all of the sun’s light into energy.
Because of this seemingly low efficiency of solar power, much solar technology is devoted to creating more efficient cells, ones that capture and use light to a better advantage. Technology is developing to capture photons that pass right through and/or are reflected by solar cells. This new technology will capture photons of different wavelength of light. No reflected light is converted into solar power.
Silicon absorbs blue light very easily, but not infrared or red light.
A silicon solar cell has electrons that do not “get excited” (and thereby produce electricity) by infrared light: infrared light does not knock the electrons out of place.
Solar power will be greatly improved as technology advances and more wavelengths of the light spectrum can be absorbed and therefore used by solar panels. If more light is absorbed, then more electricity can be produced by a smaller panel, the efficiency will rise, and the costs of solar power will greatly drop.