Solar Cell Sets World-Record Conversion Efficiency

(Page 2 of 2)

Aug. 20, 2008
From EERE Network News 
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While the device is not yet practical, it has the potential to run off either sunlight or waste heat. Engineers at the University of California, San Diego have employed similar "nanowires" to boost the efficiency of organic solar cells, which are made of plastic.

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Meanwhile, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have found a way to convert windows into devices that concentrate sunlight for conversion into electricity. MIT developed a mixture of dyes that can be painted onto a pane of glass or plastic. The dyes absorb sunlight and then re-emit it within the glass in a different wavelength of light, which then tends to reflect off the interior surfaces of the glass. As the light reflects within the glass pane, it tends to get channeled along the length of the glass to its edges, where it is emitted.

The MIT researchers estimate that sunlight is concentrated by a factor of 40, allowing solar cells that are optimized for such concentrated sunlight to be mounted along the edges of the window. The unique optics of the approach yields a cheap solar concentrator that does not need to be pointed toward the sun, as is needed for lens-based concentrators. MIT estimates that the process will be commercialized by Covalent Solar within the next three years. For more information, read this fact sheet.

Reprinted from EERE Network News, a free newsletter of the U.S. Department of Energy.
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