Posts Tagged efficient solar cell

Solar Cells Could Break 40% Efficiency With Photochemical Upconversion

Posted by Boniface Ndirangu in Solar Power on April 24, 2012

Researchers from the University of Sydney have developed what they term as a “photochemical upconversion” technique to increase the solar cells’ efficiency. This could potentially be up to a record breaking 40%. Even though there has been a continued improvement in the overall efficiency of conventional silicon solar cells in the past few years, and [...]

New Bismuth Selenide Material Enhances Solar Cells’ Heat-Capturing Ability

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on March 9, 2012

An “exotic” material belonging to a class of materials called “topological insulators” could help solar cells and optical communication devices evolve. A team of scientists from Stanford and SLAC have noticed that ultra-thin sheets of that material remain transparent and highly conductive even in the harshest conditions. To be more precise, the researchers flexed, folded [...]

Record-Breaking Efficiency for Polymer Solar Cells Achieved by UC Researchers

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on February 25, 2012

University of California researchers led by Yang Yang, professor of materials science and engineering, have developed a polymer solar cell that achieves a 10.6 percent efficiency. The discovery comes at less than a year since the same research group reached an 8.6 percent efficiency, in July. So far, polymer solar cells have been traditionally inefficient. Yang’s [...]

New Organic Solar Cell Efficiency Record Obtained by Heliatek

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on December 8, 2011

A new efficiency record for organic photovoltaic cells has been reached by Heliatek, for the third time in a row. The German company created a cheap solar cell that can convert up to 9.8 percent of the incoming light into electricity. Heliatek’s new solar cell is made from oligomers, and differs from polymer and dye-sensitized [...]

Japanese Green Ferrite Solar Cell 100 Times More Powerful Than Any Silicon-Based

Posted by Mihai Sandru in Solar Power on September 20, 2011

A team of professors and students from the Okayama Graduate School of Science and Technology led by Professor Naoshi Ikeda has built a unique solar cell that uses an iron oxide substrate instead of silicon, making the cell not only cheaper, but, as the professor claims, 100 times more powerful than anything based on silicon. [...]

SunPower's Solar Panels Enter The Guinness Book

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on June 20, 2011

I didn’t know the Guiness Book awards solar cell efficiencies lately. This story I read on Cleantechnica tells how SunPower, “the most popular solar panels company in California,” got into the Guinness Book for providing people with “the most efficient commercially available photovoltaic modules on the market.”

Startup Company Makes Cheap Solar Panels With a Third The Silicon Needed Normally

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on February 23, 2011

High performance single-crystalline solar cells have historically been expensive, mostly due to the materials used in the manufacturing process. A Santa Clara, CA, startup company, Crystal Solar, has developed an innovative process of manufacturing solar cells that have the same efficiency but cost a lot less.

Stanford Researchers Get Threefold Efficiency Gains by Binding Organic Layer to Solar Cells

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on February 21, 2011

While studying quantum dot solar cells, chemical engineering Professor Stacey Bent and associate Professor Michael McGehee of the department of Materials Science and Engineering coated a titanium dioxide semiconductor in their quantum dot solar cell with a very thin single layer of self-assembling organic molecules.

Efficiency-Boosting Solar Concentrators from HyperSolar a Step Closer to Commercialization

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on February 16, 2011

Tuning existing solar cells so they run at their best is the hardest thing to do next to creating new ones, with the most advanced technology to date. HyperSolar, a company specialized in building solar concentrators, has reached that point where they can say they’ll be able to develop a commercial product in the following period.

Singlet Fission Having The Possibility to Increase Solar Cell Efficiency by 35 Percent

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on December 10, 2010

A molecular system that could be used to enhance the efficiency of solar cells by 35 percent has been recently discovered by NREL and University of Colorado, Boulder (UCB) researchers.

New Fullerene-Based Transparent Honeycomb Polymers Could Act As Power Generating Windows

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on November 5, 2010

Nowadays, many researchers search methods of making transparent solar cells that can act both as windows and as solar harvesters. Some of them can even be manufactured relatively cheaply using a technology that can spread them onto large areas.

Electrowetting Solar Cells Use Liquids to Focus Light Onto Them, Eliminating Expensive Mechanics

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on October 13, 2010

Solar panels, throughout their entire existence, have had the same issue over and over again: once the Sun’s light began to hit them with an angle, they became inefficient, so fixed solar panels were only great at noon. Soon after people realized that, they began constructing all sorts of contraptions that would modify the panels’ position so to face the Sun directly.

Nanoscale Thin Film Solar Cell Absorbs 12 Times More Light Than Macro-Sized Counterparts

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on September 29, 2010

Light behaves differently in macro- and nano- scale environments, and this could be a starting point for those researchers who want to improve the solar cells’ efficiency. It was a starting point for some Stanford engineers, who found out that light ricocheting inside an ultra-thin polymer film solar cell behaves differently than if the film wasn’t so thin. The difference is enormous.

Sharp Breaks New Record With Its Concentrated Photovoltaic Cells

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on September 6, 2010

Sharp has worked closely with the University of Tokyo, and aims breaking the record again with 45% by 2015 and even to reach 50% by 2025. The company says that at 45% the cost of solar will finally reach that of nuclear and thermal power plants.

Zinc Oxide Solar Cells Receiving 8 Percent Boost With Food Dyes

Posted by Ovidiu Sandru in Solar Power on September 4, 2010

Zinc oxide-based solar cells have just received an innovation from an Indian scientist, Ram Mehra of Sharda University in Greater Noida, India. He claims boosting the capacity of zinc oxide fuel cells and making them capture more of the incident light by using a blended mixture of common dyes, regularly used in food and medical industries.

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