New technique opens up advanced solar cells

In a photovoltaic cell, light generates opposite charges in the active layer. The charges must then be separated as quickly as possible to keep them from recombining. Positive charges are driven by a built-in electric field ...

Record efficiency with tandem solar cells

On Thursday Alice Furlan receives her PhD for her study in which she experimented with stacking different types of material layers in flexible, thin solar cells. By combining these with a thin layer of silicon into a 'tandem ...

X-rays reveal details of plastic solar cell production

Plastic solar cells are light, easy to install, and readily produced using a printer. Nevertheless, the processes that take place on the molecular scale during the production of organic solar cells are not yet entirely clear. ...

New plastic solar cell minimizes loss of photon energy

As the world increasingly looks to alternative sources of energy, inexpensive and environmentally friendly polymer-based solar cells have attracted significant attention, but they still do not match the power harvest of their ...

Where is solar power headed?

Most experts agree that to have a shot at curbing the worst impacts of climate change, we need to extricate our society from fossil fuels and ramp up our use of renewable energy.

Why 'baking powder' increases efficiency of plastic solar cells

The efficiency of plastic solar cells can be doubled or tripled if an extra solvent is added during the production process, comparable with the role of baking powder in dough mixture. Exactly how this works has been unclear ...

Creating low-cost solar energy

Work by PhD student Alex Barker, under the supervision of Dr Justin Hodgkiss, a senior lecturer in the School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, is helping to improve the efficiency of next generation solar cells made from ...

New research could lead to less expensive solar panels

(Phys.org) —A new discovery, by researchers at the University of St Andrews on why plastic solar cells work so well, could lead to better solar panels that are less expensive and more efficient.

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