Fool's Gold (image by Clearly Ambiguous, CC 2.0 licensed)
Interesting note flying around the blogosphere yesterday (see , , and , amongst many websites featuring the news) about a . It found that, based on material cost and availability, solar photovoltaics made with iron pyrites (aka Fool's Gold) are more likely to solve our energy crisis than PV made with silicon or CIGS thinfilms. This is due to both the cost of the raw materials and their availability - both crystalline silicon and the CIGS precursors are relatively expensive and relatively rare. Iron pyrite and its precursors are among the most common elements on earth, in contrast.





