Latest Solar cell research Stories
Sets New Record with Concentrator Triple-Junction Compound Solar Cell Osaka, June 14, 2013 - (JCN Newswire) - Sharp Corporation has achieved the world's highest solar cell conversion efficiency(2) of 44.4%(1), using a concentrator triple-junction compound solar cell. These solar cells are used in a lens-based concentrator system that focuses sunlight on the cells to generate electricity.This latest Sharp breakthrough came about through...
A recently added market report by Transparency Market Research on “Organic Solar Cells Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, And Forecast, 2012 - 2018” is now available for pre-order. To browse the report, visit http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/organic-solar-cells.html Albany, New York (PRWEB) May 06, 2013 A solar cell is a device that captures solar energy and converts the light energy into electricity using organic electronics. This is done due to...
Throughout decades of research on solar cells, one formula has been considered an absolute limit to the efficiency of such devices in converting sunlight into electricity: Called the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit, it posits that the ultimate conversion efficiency can never exceed 34 percent for a single optimized semiconductor junction. Now, researchers at MIT have shown that there is a way to blow past that limit as easily as today's jet fighters zoom through the sound barrier —...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Researchers have developed recyclable, efficient solar cells using natural substrates from plants like trees. Georgia Institute of Technology and Purdue University researchers wrote in the journal Scientific Reports about how the solar cells can be quickly recycled in water at the end of their lifecycle. The team's solar cells are capable of reaching a power conversion efficiency of 2.7 percent. During the recycling process, the...
Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology show that a recently discovered class of materials can be used to create a new kind of solar cell. Single atomic layers are combined to create novel materials with completely new properties. Layered oxide heterostructures are a new class of materials, which has attracted a great deal of attention among materials scientists in the last few years. A research team at the Vienna University of Technology, together with colleagues from the USA...
Geometric pattern maximizes time light is trapped in solar cell The sun’s energy is virtually limitless, but harnessing its electricity with today’s single-crystal silicon solar cells is extremely expensive — 10 times pricier than coal, according to some estimates. Organic solar cells — polymer solar cells that use organic materials to absorb light and convert it into electricity — could be a solution, but current designs suffer because polymers have less-than-optimal electrical...
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Silicon wafers destined to become photovoltaic (PV) cells can take a bruising through assembly lines, as they are oxidized, annealed, purified, diffused, etched, and layered to reach their destinies as efficient converters of the sun's rays into useful electricity. All those refinements are too much for 5% to 10% of the costly wafers. They have micro-cracks left over from incomplete wafer preparation, which causes them to break on the...
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Solar cells provide emissions-free power at a relatively low cost, but for all their benefits, the cells still have one major drawback – they are stiff, bulky and therefore limited in their application. According to a paper in the latest edition of Scientific Reports, however, Stanford engineers have just discovered a potentially revolutionary solution to this predicament – peel-and-stick solar cells. Until now, thin-film...
Princeton University, Engineering School Princeton researchers have found a simple and economic way to nearly triple the efficiency of organic solar cells, the cheap and flexible plastic devices that many scientists believe could be the future of solar power. The researchers, led by electrical engineer Stephen Chou, were able to increase the efficiency 175 percent by using a nanostructured "sandwich" of metal and plastic that collects and traps light. Chou said the technology also...
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports – Your Universe Online The same technology that helps you reheat your day-old pizza or cook a breakfast burrito could help produce lower-cost, more environmentally friendly solar-powered technology, a team of Oregon State University (OSU) researchers have discovered. According to a Friday press release, engineers at the Corvallis-based university have developed a method that uses the technology found in microwave ovens to produce thin-film...
