80% Improvement In Solar Cell Efficiency

An anonymous reader writes "Chemistry researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory say they've improved the efficiency of typical solar cells by a whopping 80% by creating a 3-D nanocone-based solar cell platform. The technology tackles the problem of poor transport of charges generated by solar photons. These charges — 'negative electrons and positive holes' — typically become trapped by defects in bulk materials and degrade performance. 'We designed the three-dimensional structure to provide an intrinsic electric field distribution that promotes efficient charge transport and high efficiency in converting energy from sunlight into electricity.' Bottom line, they say, is they've boosted the light-to-power conversion efficiency of photovoltaics by 80 percent."

Comments

Re:80% from what? No! Far worse than that!

[Thagg]

From the fine article: "With this approach at the laboratory scale, Xu and colleagues were able to obtain a light-to-power conversion efficiency of 3.2 percent compared to 1.8 percent efficiency..."

So, with a ridiculously bad solar cell, they could increase the efficiency to something that's still ridiculously bad.

The key to solar cells is watts/dollar.

Thad

Re:Yawn

[Rei]

BUT the fact the solar cells that are available today are basically the same as the ones 15 years ago

BUT the fact is that you've clearly not paid one iota of attention to the price difference between today's cells versus those of 15 years ago (just so you know, they're about 1/3rd the cost now), nor the chemistry differences between today's cells and those of 15 years ago (go back to 1996 and find me a mass-market CdTe cell, won't you? The largest PV manufacturer in the world is now CdTe)

Re:Yawn

[Surt]

Solar cells are actually significantly ahead of where they were 15 years ago. There's no huge jump, but there really can't be, as we're nearing the theoretical limit of simple pv cells. More complicated cells can do better, but again the maximum amount better is less than 3x, and that is all the improvement we can ever get.

Have a look at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency

and you'll see the slow but steady march of progress. That march is reflected in the commercial cells you can buy as well.