The idea of combining photovoltaics and solar thermal collectors into one product is gaining more attention. The main attraction is cramming in more power into an area that neither solar thermal or photovoltaics would accomplish alone: Naked Energy, a British startup now in the commercialization phase, claims its product absorbs 20% of incident solar energy as electricity and another 60% as heat. One of Naked Energy’s pilot installations Naked Energy should prove to be a leader of this niche, thanks to its proprietary design – a sawtooth arrangement of photovoltaic modules enclosed in vacuum tubes, alternated with mirrors. Its overall efficiency rating of 80% puts it right at the front of the pack, with each of the above tubes –…