The energy efficiency of organic solar cells is approaching that of
conventional silicon solar cells, but they don't necessarily have to compete on the same market.
In terms of performance, this is a world record
for silicon solar cells and for hydrogen production without using rare metals.
The best light - to - energy conversion efficiency we've reached so far is 1 %, which is well below the usual 10 - 15 % efficiency of
commercial silicon solar cells.
In the next stage of development, he aims to boost the efficiency of the design, which is currently less than one percent of that achieved by top -
performing silicon solar cells.
The silicon - based fibers are photovoltaic just like
crystalline silicon solar cells used in solar panels and could eventually be used to make electricity - generating fabrics for clothing, tents, backpacks — basically anything you could imagine.
Even though the process has been used for decades
in silicon solar cell manufacturing, exactly what happens during the firing step has remained unknown because the firing process happens in only a few seconds.
The researchers have obtained the record - breaking efficiency of 22.1 % on nanostructured
silicon solar cells as certified by Fraunhofer ISE CalLab.
«To augment the
best silicon solar cells, next - generation thin - film technologies need to be process - compatible with a finished cell.
If anything,
amorphous silicon solar cells, which rely on relatively thin layers of silicon, employ more silane as part of their process, using the gas to deposit the thin layer of semiconducting materials that manufacturers such as Sharp and Uni-Solar need.
That
meant silicon solar cells, which comprised more than 80 percent of the global market for solar power, would not be cheap.
The team currently envisions adding this coating to traditional single -
crystal silicon solar cells (currently available on the market).
Making a conventional
silicon solar cell requires many steps, all done in just the right order at just the right temperature — something like baking a fragile soufflé.
The existing photovoltaics market is dominated by modules made of single -
junction silicon solar cells, with efficiencies between 17 % and 24 %.
«
Unmodified silicon solar cells throw away light energy in the form of reflection, so most solar cells have some kind of antireflective coating,» explains first author Daichi Irishika.
Researchers at Aalto University have produced black
silicon solar cells capable of reaching a 22.1 percent conversion efficiency, which is a full 4 percent increase from the previous record.
Applied Materials: Back Contact Photovoltaic Revolution —
New silicon solar cell and module technologies promise to increase efficiency and lower manufacturing costs.
This efficiency level, according to Imec, represents the first time such a stacked configuration has outperformed a
standalone silicon solar cell.
For a typical
crystalline silicon solar cell with an efficiency of 20 percent, 55 F of cooling would improve absolute cell efficiency by over 1 percent, a figure that represents a significant gain in energy production.
The researchers noted in the report that making the transition from a silicon single - junction cell to a silicon - based dual - junction solar cell will enable manufacturers to push efficiencies past 30 % while still benefiting from their expertise in
making silicon solar cells.
He adds that perovskite solar cells using the older, high - temperature method are only marginally better at 22.1 per cent, and even the
best silicon solar cells can only reach 26.3 per cent.
The new prototype will be made with an 14,000 mAh internal battery, 27
amorphous silicon solar cells (each about 3.7 inches), and an easy - to - assemble tree structure that can be customized.
Silevo is a California - based company that develops and
manufactures silicon solar cells and modules, with an already established manufacturing plant in China.
Their paper, «The formation mechanism for printed silver - contacts
for silicon solar cells,» appears in the journal Nature Communications.
The surface recombination has long been the bottleneck of
black silicon solar cells and has so far limited the cell efficiencies to only modest values.
University of Delaware (UD) researchers have managed to crank up the efficiency
of silicon solar cells to a record - breaking 42.8 percent under standard terrestrial sunlight conditions.
They produced
the silicon solar cell.
The building block of
silicon solar cells has dropped so much in price that the venerable solar technology actually increased its share of the solar market over thin films in 2010, now accounting for nearly 90 percent of the photovoltaic market at a cost of roughly $ 1.20 per watt, not including installation.
And unless this stability problem can be solved perovskite devices may never become a viable alternative to
silicon solar cells.
«In this tunnel junction, holes from
the silicon solar cell recombine with electrons flowing from the perovskite solar cell using quantum mechanical tunneling,» said Jonathan Mailoa, a graduate student at MIT and co-author of the report, in an email.
Instead, they want perovskite -
silicon solar cells to be everyday drivers, replacing conventional panels on roofs and in solar farms.
Currently available crystalline
silicon solar cells have up to 25 % efficiency but are opaque.