Friday, March 27, 2015

Brand-new “tandem” solar cell developed

Experts at Massachusetts Institute of Advancement (MIT) and Stanford Univ. allow us a new kind of solar cell which is combines two different layers for sunlight-absorbing material in order to harvest an absolute broader range of the sun's exertion. The development could lead to photovoltaic cells which are more efficient than those currently used in solar-power installations, the researchers say.

As an alternative to cell uses a layer of silicon—which forms the basis for most of our present solar panels—but adds a semi-transparent layer of a material called perovskite, which can absorb higher-energy particles of sunshine. Unlike an earlier "tandem" solar cells reported by members of the same team past this year—in which the two folds were physically stacked, but simultaneously had its own separate electrical connections—the new version has both folds connected together as a single toy that needs only one control circuit.

As an alternative to findings are reported in the reproduction Applied Physics Letters by VIA graduate student Jonathan Mailoa; correlate professor of mechanical engineering Tonio Buonassisi; Colin Bailie and Michael jordan McGehee at Stanford; and four the rest.

"Different layers absorb different a percentage of the sunlight, " Mailoa puts in plain words. In the earlier tandem solar cell, together layers of photovoltaic material happens to be operated independently of each other furthermore required their own wiring and regulating circuits, allowing each cell staying tuned independently for optimal motion.

By contrast, the new combined version really needs to be much simpler to make and install, Mailoa says. "It has advantages as far as simplicity, because it looks and keeps going just like a single silicon cell, " he says, with only a single energy control circuit needed.

One tradeoff is that the current produced is limited due to the fact capacity of the lesser of the only two layers. Electrical current, Buonassisi puts in plain words, can be thought of as analogous to the variety of water passing through a pipe, which is tied to the diameter of the pipe: If you happen to connect two lengths of water line of different diameters, one after the all the other, "the amount of water is limited due to the fact narrowest pipe, " he says. Merging two solar cell layers by using series has the same limiting impact on current.

To address that limitation, they aims to match the current output of one's two layers as precisely as is possible. In this proof-of-concept solar cell, this suggests the total power output is about just as that of conventional solar cells; the team would finally be working to optimize that output.

Perovskites have been studied for potential virtual uses including solar cells, but standard first time they have been successfully paired with si cells in this configuration, a task that posed numerous technical projects. Now the team is focusing on building the power efficiency—the percentage of sunlight's energy that gets converted to electricity—that is possible from the combined cell. With initial version, the efficiency is also 13. 7%, but the researchers admit they have identified low-cost ways of working on this to about 30%—a sizeable improvement over today's commercial silicon-based solar cells—and they say this engineering could ultimately achieve a power efficiency greater than 35%.

They will also explore how to definitely manufacture the new type of device, however, Buonassisi says that should be relatively simple and easy, since the materials lend themselves of being made through methods very similar to common silicon-cell manufacturing.

One hurdle is also making the material durable enough staying commercially viable: The perovskite material degrades quickly in open air, this either needs to be modified to improve the device's inherent durability or encapsulated steer clear of exposure to air—without adding significantly of manufacturing costs and without degrading motion.

This exact formulation may not get the most advantageous for better photovoltaic cells, Buonassisi says, but is one for several pathways worth exploring. "Our job at this point is to provide options in your world, " he says. "The existing will select among them. "

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