Developing a cheaper, alternative solar cell for Europe

With climate change threatening and worldwide CO2 emission levels higher than ever, the need for renewable energy technologies is now critical. But for widespread market acceptance, these new technologies have to be cheap, ...

Inspired by nature

To maximise the efficiency of solar cells of the future, physicists are taking a leaf out of nature's book.

Watching solar cells grow

(Phys.org) —For the first time, a team of researchers at the HZB led by Dr. Roland Mainz and Dr. Christian Kaufmann has managed to observe growth of high-efficiency chalcopyrite thin film solar cells in real time and to ...

Nanostructures improve efficiency of solar cells

Researchers have been able to improve the efficiency of solar cells by coating the cell surface with extremely small nanoscale structures. The new technology has been shown to nearly eliminate the reflection losses of solar ...

New solar-cell design based on dots and wires

Using exotic particles called quantum dots as the basis for a photovoltaic cell is not a new idea, but attempts to make such devices have not yet achieved sufficiently high efficiency in converting sunlight to power. A new ...

Black silicon can take efficiency of solar cells to new levels

Scientists at Aalto University have demonstrated results that show a huge improvement in the light absorption and the surface passivation of silicon nanostructures. This has been achieved by applying atomic layer coating. ...

Inverted polymer solar cell efficiency sets world record

(Phys.org)—For many years, researchers have strived to reach the goal of 10% efficiency for polymer-based organic photovoltaic (OPV) solar cells, a target widely considered to be the threshold for commercial applications. ...

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