Rooftop Solar Panel Efficiencies Increase thanks to 3D printing

Researchers at Penn State University and the University of Illinois have used arrays of 3D printed 'lenslets' to build a tracking system which follows the sun to improve the efficiency of concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar energy systems. The device, which collimates sunlight and focuses it accurately to collect solar energy, is now 70% percent efficient and the research teams says it might one day reach 90% efficiency. You can read the whole story here: http://3dprint.com/44300/3d-printed-lenslets-for-cpvs/


Below is a look at the design rendering. It will be interesting to see if this application will help to further the drop of commercially available rooftop solar panel pricing. What do you think?
http://3dprint.com/wp-content/upload...on_acrylic.jpg

I don't know enough about pv's to know where the lack of efficiency stems from but last I heard solar panels were barely into the 20% range. These lenses are claimed to be 70% efficient but that says nothing about the potential for the panels themselves unless current optics are far below that level. I assume that current optics are lacking or they wouldn't be bothering with this line of research but even if the optics were to achieve 100% efficiency I'm curious what that would do to the total efficiency of a panel.