Today will be short and sweet – I have just come back from the dentist having had a broken front tooth repaired!

Before Christmas there was a news report telling about a new development in solar energy capture engineered in Santa Fe (America, not Spain). This is a very thin film of shiny ‘substance’ on a roll. This could in future become the mainstay of the Photovoltaic energy harnessing industry. It is touted as being many many times more efficient than the silicon based products of today.

You remember the song “Black is Black”. Well it isn’t. There are many shades of black as you will know if you have matched up two pieces of black clothing not bought as a set. Now there is a new shade, an energy producing shade of blackest black. No, I haven’t been beamed up to a another planet on a shaft of solar energy! A black surface which only reflects 0.01% of the light falling on it. So, bring on the next generation of solar water heaters!