Here is a very basic yet concise background on nanotechnology.  They also explain well what this has to do with solar energy performance:

Miniaturization is, perhaps ironically, a huge deal. I mean, without it we wouldn’t have had the personal computer revolution and we wouldn’t have this world we live in now where we have smartphones and tablets and other devices just as powerful as a computer, that can fit in the palm of your hand. But even these gadgets are gargantuan compared to nanotechnology.

See, a nanometer is just one billionth of a meter, and that’s kind of hard to imagine, so let me put it to you this way. Your typical sheet of paper is about one hundred thousand nanometers thick. And at this scale, individual elements are so small you can’t even see them with a light microscope. Now as we learn more about how materials behave on the nanoscale, we have more potential applications to use that knowledge practically.

Now with efficiency they’re looking to nature – specifically, moth eyes. You see, moths have these little tiny structures in their eyes that help reflect light back into the eye and it does two things – it lets them see better in the dark, and it cuts down on reflection so predators can’t spot them as easily. With solar panels it could actually make them more efficient by reflecting more of the sun’s light into the panel so you lose less in reflection.

This sounds very promising.  Now how long until this is rapidly deployed for homes and buildings across the world?  What do you think?

thanks to Brian Kusler for the pic