In a world first, Australian researchers have succeeded in converting 40 per cent of the sunlight that collide with a solar system into electricity.
The achievement is a revolution in increasing the efficiency of solar panels, which will eventually lead to cheaper sources of renewable energy, according to the scientists.
The record efficiency was achieved in tests conducted at Sydney, which was later confirmed by outdoor tests piloted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
This is the highest efficiency ever reported for sunlight conversion into electricity, pointed out, Martin Green, professor, The University of New South Wales Scientia Professor, director, Advanced Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP).
The research also used commercial solar cells in a different way. Instead of one solar cell, which yields around 33 percent the new technology splits the sunlight into four different cells, which boosts the conversion levels.
The main feature of the prototype comprises of a custom optical bandpass filter to capture sunlight that is generally not absorbed by commercial solar cells on and convert it to electricity at a higher efficiency.
Such filters reflect particular wavelengths of light while transmitting others.
Australian company RayGen Resources will harness the technology for solar power towers, which use sun-tracking mirrors to focus sunlight on a tall building.
Another partner in the research was US based Spectrolab that provided some of the cells used in the project.
In addition, the technology is capable to increase the efficiency of panel mounted solar on people’s roofs, which currently had a 15 to 18 percent efficiency rate.
Sabeena Wahid
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