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Record-Breaking Solar Cells Tailored To Location

Posted by samzenpus on from the new-and-improved dept.

Urchin writes "The quality of sunlight varies depending on where you live, but off-the-shelf solar cells are all identical. A new solar cell designed by UK firm Quantasol is easily tuned to adapt to the local light conditions, which boosts its long-term performance. Its short-term performance isn't bad though — the single junction solar cell has a peak efficiency greater than any previous device, beating a world record that's stood for 21 years."

4 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Efficiency VS Cost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Efficiency doesn't really matter. What we really want is the lowest cost per kWh. What's the price of these?

  2. What about average efficiency? by SirLurksAlot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Not to belittle this accomplishment, but I'd prefer to see an increase in average efficiency. According to the article the peak efficiency is found when panels are exposed to light 500 times that of normal light. How does that translate to efficiency under normal operating conditions (such as a semi-cloudy day in the midwest)? The article is rather short on details concerning how well the solar cells operate when they are "tailored to their locations."

    --
    God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
    1. Re:What about average efficiency? by SirLurksAlot · · Score: 2, Interesting

      There is no average efficiency, because unfortunately the bastard that designed this version of Earth didn't make solar radiation distribution gaussian.

      Perhaps not, however the light that actually reaches the panels is in no way constant. Some days will be cloudier (or smoggier for that matter) than others, so it is great that we have really good peak efficiency with these new cells, but how often will that peak be reached and how well does it operate at less than optimal light conditions? I'm looking for practical, non-commercial applications.

      For some reason, snow and solar panels get along like a big house on fire.

      What about solar panels pointed at burning houses coated in magnesium? Maybe the peak efficiency will be useful there ;-)

      --
      God, schmod. I want my monkey man!
  3. 500x normal sunlight. by Jartan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It sounds like the interesting part here isn't the efficiency but that it's efficient enough and can handle a lot of extra sunlight via mirrors. The article fails to give any info though on what kind of efficiency other solar cells can achieve with mirrors focused on them. Without any reference it's hard to get an idea for whether or not this is even useful though.