If you listen closely, you can almost here the music and a famous announcer saying, Da da da da, Solar Cells, Ready for Prime Time! And with it being the year 2009, right now might be the time to turn those dreams of solar cells into reality.

First of all, even in this recession that we are having right now, solar cells are having a boom year. If you ever wanted to invest in the stock market, solar cells are darn near a sure thing.

More states will be giving tax benefits and rebates this year, mainly due to the new government administration and the 30% tax incentive that benefits solar cell purchases, and at the very least, these incentives will be in place for the next 8 years! Our government has passed into law major incentives for anyone who wants to use alternative energy, and that means easier access and much more cost effectiveness for you. It also means, continued growth in the solar industry.

But, lets forget about the money talk right now, and get into the meat of the solar powered revolution, the actual solar cells themselves.

Right now, the highest efficiency solar cells are converting about 20% of the suns light into electricity. Only a few years ago, it was between 12 and 15%, so efficiency is steadily growing. However, there are designs out there called the 3rd generation of solar cells that are getting in the area of a nearly 50% conversion rates of sun to electricity, and needless to say, once those get to the market, it will be another solar cell revolution.

The big buzz this year is from a product called thin film solar cells. Unlike traditional solar panels that need to be mounted in ungainly looking, and to some peoples’ eyes, ugly roof frames, thin film solar cells need merely to be glued down to a roof where they lay almost invisible to the naked eye! Although they are not yet quite as efficient as regular crystalline solar cells (the standard in the industry), because they are thinner and cheaper to produce, you can get more of them in the same space and therefore, quantity equals quality in this case.

Right now, that is what is available to anyone out there who wants to go solar, and those are truly a couple of good choices. However, there are designs of solar cells out there with efficiency ratings that are truly amazing and make the ones available now look like toys.

For example, Boeing invented a solar cell that gets about 40% efficiency by concentrating the suns rays onto the cells themselves. That’s by still using the old standard cells, but just by doing a little tweaking, they are able to reap large benefits.

However, the most promising technology on the horizon are called 3D or nano tube solar cells. These cells have a raised coating that look like miniature skyscrapers and capture all forms of light, from visible to infra red and ultra violet. Although no efficiency rating is given on these experimental cells, it is the goal of the scientists working on this project that every last photon collected is turned into usable electricity. In lay persons terms, that equates to somewhere in the 75% to near 100% efficiency. Talk about a revolution, and this is going to be a big one.

There you have the skinny on everything solar, what’s out there now, and what will be available for the future. Personally, I’m licking my chops because this is the type of technology that is the wave of the future, and I can hardly wait!