Eli Yablonovitch's company, Alta Devices, manufactures a thin film high efficiency PV cell but they can't compete right now against cheap Chinese silicon wafer cells in the solar panel market, so they are focusing on niche markets, primarily drones at first.
His 2017 talk to the MIT Energy Initiative (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K1URyarE0) goes into the economics of solar and why his company is using this strategy. Basically, they need to find niche markets until they can work their way down the learning curve and achieve economies of scale.
He also discusses thermophotovoltaics. Very efficient light-weight PV allows for longer drone flights but night is an obstacle to multi-day flights. Given the choice between batteries and fuel to keep aloft until dawn this does seem like a possible breakthrough, deserving of the article's title, although the text could be a lot more clear.
His 2017 talk to the MIT Energy Initiative (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_K1URyarE0) goes into the economics of solar and why his company is using this strategy. Basically, they need to find niche markets until they can work their way down the learning curve and achieve economies of scale.
He also discusses thermophotovoltaics. Very efficient light-weight PV allows for longer drone flights but night is an obstacle to multi-day flights. Given the choice between batteries and fuel to keep aloft until dawn this does seem like a possible breakthrough, deserving of the article's title, although the text could be a lot more clear.