http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-03/09/230-percent-efficient-leds
You put in 30 trillionths of a watt and get out 69? So you are up 39 trillionths of a watt! :w00t: Hmm that's massive power being created there... ???
Perhaps if you had a trillion of them you might get enough to power out for a low power light bulb.
I think it's the process that's interesting here rather than the product itself (if it can even be called that, even the EU can't claim 69 picowatts is enough to light a room lol)
If I understand it correctly, they're essentially saying they can use an electric current to stimulate the LED to extract heat energy from its surroundings. If so, and if true, that's potentially very useful along the road.
This is another of those proof of concept creations. What they've made in itself isn't anything to be amazed by, but the potential avenues it opens up for development clearly is.
It's going to take a considerable amount of work to get this anywhere worthwhile but the results could be valuable, especially in cooling systems for homes and businesses.
Turning waste and surplus heat into electric could massively increase efficiency and reduce pollution but I suspect it's going to be a long time before actual products emerge.
/me looks at the geo-thermal power generation plant over there...
hmm... we'll never figure this whole turning waste and surplus heat into electric thing ;) :D
Point taken but this is a much greater option, if you can reduce the heat coming through your roof and house walls during summer then you need less air conditioning. Similarly the same could prevent heat loss from a house in the winter.
If all new build houses were fitted with cavity wall insulation, solar panels on the roof, we'd likely start actually making a dent on the green side of things.
I don't think we'll see anything come of this tech in the next 10 years but it's still exciting.
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Many things can be made, if one replaces ALL lighting with LED (not the kind above but regular) it would save 20% of all energy used (in sweden that would be half of that the nukes now produces).