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The essential need for electric power in an era of oil crises and global warming has raised a world-wide interest in methods of solar energy manufacturing. Israeli scientists say they have discovered a way to mass produce solar energy efficiently enough to compete with oil and other conventional fuels. David Faiman, a professor of physics at Ben Gurion University, is the head of the National Center for Solar Energy in Israel's Negev desert. Faiman, who studied solar energy for 31 years, said that By using two separate devices -- one to collect and intensify the sunlight, and one to convert the rays into electricity -- he can produce the same amount of electricity as a conventional power plant for the same price. The key to harnessing the sun's power efficiently is to replace ordinary solar panels that both collect and convert sunlight into electricity with solar panels that only convert, Faiman said. At the southern communal farm of Sde Boker, Faiman created a reflector made of mirrors that he said collects and intensifies the light a thousand times over. The photovoltaic, or solar, cells in the panels used by Faiman's team are able to handle a much higher intensity of light. This intense light, which Faiman says is strong enough to carbonize a person, is directed at the solar panel, which converts the light into energy with twice the efficiency as ordinary panels. "The achievement is that we separate out the collection function of a photovoltaic cell to the light conve...