The potential advantages of terrestrially utilizing nonpolluting solar energy are wellknown.One of the more promising approaches to achieving the desired high solarelectrical conversion efficiency is the direct process, avoiding Carnot efficiency limitations of heal engines.The chief present-art example is the large area silicon solar cell based on utilization of quantum properties of light. In the United States it is now an established technology created from the space program.This paper presents the results of some preliminary new research exploring the possibilities of creating high efficiency solar-electricity converters utilizing wave-like properties of radiation interacting with absorber-converter elements.The concept is revealed for what is believed to be a new, unique, and potentially useful pyramidica! solar radiation absorber-converter structure.It is based on the possibility of extending concepts of power absorbing antennas and converters to the visible light range.The resulting proposed converter structure would have a rough surface texture and yield a d-c output.It may have, if subsequently researched, significant efficiency, cost, and fabricating advantages, particularly for large-scale terrestrial utilization of solar energy.The concept is called an Electromagnetic Wave Energy Converter (EWEC).Concept validity evidences of a preliminary kind at both microwave and near light wavelengths are presented. Need for a New Concept in Solar DECUAPTURE and utilization of the sun's energy has long tantalized man. Solar heating means are at least as old as the Chinese civilization. Only in recent years, however, has significant direct solar-electric converter hardware been created.The advantages of large area solar cells as reliable sources of electrical power for space vehicles are well-known. A modest space-oriented solar conversion technology has thus evolved in the United States, principally as a result of government sponsorship. The established present-art solar-electricity technology is based on the direct energy conversion (DEC) process which has been shown [l] 1 to be theoretically not Carnot-effieiency limited for all practical purposes, since solar cells are not basically heat engines. The entire solar cell technology, so thoroughly and coherently summarized by Crossley, Noel, and Wolf [2], is predicated on utilizing the quantum properties of light energy.The limitations of the present-art large area silicon and gallium arsenide cells are also well known. A principal one is the con-1 Numbers in brackets designate References at end of paper. /SoM. version efficiency which has remained at a maximum of approximately 13 percent for a decade in spite of reasonable, thorough, competent, and necessary research and development. It is thus clear that, without a significant efficiency breakthrough, the future of direct solar-electric technology appears limited to applying or extrapolating present-art cell technology. The efficiency limitation coupled with high costs may adversely affect the widespread future u...

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