Development of New Materials to Maximise the Solar Panel Efficiency
Researchers at the University of Melbourne will use new materials to try to tap more efficiency from solar panels.
Enhancing silicon solar cell efficiencies could lead to a drop in the cost per Watt of delivered electricity of up to 20 per cent.
Excess energy in high energy photons is normally lost as heat in solar cells but a team led by Research Group Leader, Dr David Jones, will identify better ways to use surplus energy, by getting more from each photon.
“From ultra-violet to infra-red solar panels use light to generate electricity, however only the red light is used efficiently with 60 to 80 per cent of the energy in yellow, green or blue light lost as heat in solar cells,” Dr Jones said. “We need simple, cost effective ways to recover the lost energy and turn it into electricity. New materials using quantum coupled states provide a route to use the energy in green or blue light to generate twice the power. By increasing the efficiency of solar cells by just five per cent we can reduce the cost of delivered energy by 20 per cent.”
Read full story at The University of Melbourne
