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Alvin M. Marks - Advanced Research Development Incorporated (ARDI)

20 August 1994
Sheets of wafer-thin plastic film being developed in the US could provide a cheap and convenient form of solar energy. The idea is that the film, which conducts electricity, can be rolled up like wallpaper, so that it can be easily carried, but when laid flat in sunlight will trap solar energy and convert it into electrical energy.'It could provide the cheapest source of energy known,' says Alvin Marks of Advanced Research Development Incorporated (ARDI), a company based at Athol in Massachusetts. Marks says that the materials used are extremely cheap, and could provide power at 1 cent per watt. At present, he says, the cheapest form of power costs around $1.5 per watt.ARDI is collaborating with the US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago in the three-year, $1.8 million project to develop the 'solar-cell-on-a-roll'. Marks says that the film is a fraction of the price ...
Technology: Roll on cheap solar energy - 20 August 1994 - New Scientist

Dinner With Alvin The genesis of this breakthrough was a dinner conversation that took place seven years ago between Marks and the then Director of the Third World Energy Division of the United Nations, Dr. Usmani. After complaining about a photovoltaic test project in Africa that had to be abandoned because it was too expensive and inefficient, Usmani turned to Marks and said something to the effect of `You're an inventor, can't you invent a better photovoltaic cell.' Few people would be better equipped to accept such a challenge. Marks patented his first invention in January 1938. His early work lead to what the May 1935 issue of "SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN" termed a 1,000 to 1 cost reduction in the fabrication of materials to polarize light.
AOH :: New Age Science :: SOLAR2.TXT

Alvin M. Marks, a prolific inventor who held patents on polarized film for sunglasses, a 3-D moviemaking process, a generator the size of a grapefruit that could produce enough electricity for a house, a windmill with no moving parts and a trillion-dollar %u201Cspace train,%u201D
Alvin M. Marks, Inventor With 122 Patents, Dies at 97 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com


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