Man’s creation could make solar power more accessible

Costner and his partner, Eric Hochberg, an optics expert with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, decided to use an aluminum mylar to reflect the sun’s rays. The material is not only light but cheap, Costner said.

He said the cost of a solar flat panel system that can produce 450 watts of peak output averages around $3,100, while the same system using his solar collector would cost a consumer $1,250, a savings of nearly 60 percent.