Bicycle solar power panel kid inventor aidan dwyer

Published on August 24th, 2011 | by Zachary Shahan

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13-Year-Old Creates Breakthrough Solar Technology.. Then Gets Debunked (+ Top Green Living Stories)

August 24th, 2011 by

One of the biggest green living stories of the past several days is one of a a 13-year-old, Aidan Dwyer, who reportedly created and filed a patent for a groundbreaking, super energy-efficient solar panel array setup based on the Fibonacci sequence of some tree branches. The system was supposedly 20% more efficient than traditional, flat solar panel arrays, in general, and 50% more efficient in winter.

Too good to be true?

Young solar power inventor, Aidan Dwyer.

Apparently, yes.

While just about every green (including cleantech) site I follow covered the breakthrough news, someone on a more critical science blog went ahead an examined the technology and findings more closely and wrote an extensive debunking (cached version here — the post is no longer up).

So, Aidan’s 15 minutes of fame have apparently run up. And we all look a little more foolish for jumping on the story.

But the bottom line of the story isn’t really about any of that, I think. I think the most important thing is to admire the goals, dedication, and potential of this young kid. Aidan was given a “2011 Young Naturalist” award in July from the Museum of Natural History in New York, something only 12 other students from grades 7-12 received. And, more importantly, the kid is dedicated to helping the world through science.

“I’m interested in science because it helps the world,” he said.

Anyway, on to page 2 for some top Green Living stories of the past few days:

–>> Page 2: Green Living Stories of the Week!

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About the Author

is the director of CleanTechnica, the most popular cleantech-focused website in the world, and Planetsave, a world-leading green and science news site. He has been covering green news of various sorts since 2008, and he has been especially focused on solar energy, electric vehicles, and wind energy since 2009. Aside from his work on CleanTechnica and Planetsave, he's the founder and director of Solar Love, EV Obsession, and Bikocity. To connect with Zach on some of your favorite social networks, go to ZacharyShahan.com and click on the relevant buttons.


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