WASHINGTON — Ronald Ace says that his flat-panel ‘Solar Traps,’ which could be used in electric power plants, will shatter decades-old scientific and technological barriers that have stymied efforts to make solar energy a cheap, clean and reliable alternative.

‘This is a fundamental scientific and environmental discovery,’ Ace said. ‘This invention can meet about 92 percent of the world’s energy needs.’ The transformation also could blunt global warming.

His claimed discoveries, which exist only on paper so far, would represent such a leap forward that they are sure to draw deep skepticism from solar energy experts. But a recently retired congressional energy adviser who has reviewed the invention’s still-secret design, said it’s ‘a no brainer’ that the device would vastly outperform all other known solar technology.

‘OUTSIDE THE BOX’

Ace said he is arranging for a national energy laboratory to review his calculations and that his own crude prototypes already have demonstrated that the basic physics for the invention work.

If the trap even comes close to meeting his futuristic vision, its impact could be breathtaking: It could reorder the world’s energy landscape, end the global economic drag of soaring energy costs, and eventually curb greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for climate change.

That all […]