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MIT Study Outlines a 'Perfect' Solar Cell

Posted by timothy on from the liberal-in-what-it-accepts dept.

Daniel_Stuckey writes A new MIT study offers a way out of one of solar power's most vexing problems: the matter of efficiency, and the bare fact that much of the available sunlight in solar power schemes is wasted. The researchers appear to have found the key to perfect solar energy conversion efficiency—or at least something approaching it. It's a new material that can accept light from an very large number of angles and can withstand the very high temperatures needed for a maximally efficient scheme. Conventional solar cells, the silicon-based sheets used in most consumer-level applications, are far from perfect. Light from the sun arrives here on Earth's surface in a wide variety of forms. These forms—wavelengths, properly—include the visible light that makes up our everyday reality, but also significant chunks of invisible (to us) ultraviolet and infrared light. The current standard for solar cells targets mostly just a set range of visible light.

2 of 110 comments (clear)

  1. Least helpful summary ever? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is this the least helpful summary ever on /.? It could be. I read it, and found it really didn't tell me anything I didn't already know, and gave very little clue as to how this study's results might even be helpful. I have a strong suspicion it's clickbait and so am moving along.

  2. Uses blackbody emission by wierd_w · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This system uses blackbody emission to re-radiate absorbed photons within a specific bandwidth, which can be selectively optimized for.

    However, since it uses blackbody emission, it does not explicitly NEED light as the energy source. Any kind of heating will suffice. This is really just a very fancy means of converting entropic energy into something useful. Could be very useful when coupled with radio-isotope decay systems, for instance. (This, coupled with existing RTG tech, could produce more efficient RTGs)

    Sadly, it requires that large numbers of useful photons be produced from the emitting blackbody source, which means it needs some pretty non-trivial temperatures. This isn't going to be something that is used in normal residential settings.