In the middle of a modern global energy crisis a Danish researcher may hold the key to a breakthrough for solar energy. Forests of crystals so tiny that they can be gathered at the end of a pin have the possibility of producing solar cells which are cheap.

By coincidence the nanophysicist Martin Aagesen discovered that the surface of a material through a special process may consist of extremely tiny crystals sitting so close together that the sun light cannot slip out once it has been caught, writes Berlingske Tidende.

The perspective by the so-called nanocrystals is a production of cheap and efficient solar cells which may become even more widespread than the relatively expensive solar cells that we know today. The crystals are infinitely tiny. However, billions of these can stay in just one square centimetre which means that altogether they will cover a huge area in which the sun light can be caught.

Martin Aagesen discovered the above during his work with a scientific article he was writing as a Ph.D. student at the nanoscience centre at the University of Copenhagen. The article was published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology. The discovery has already been so positively received by people in the industry and researchers within solar cells that a limited company SunFlake A/S was founded with regards to starting a production of solar cells based on the new technology.