Nanotechnology Now

• About Us
  
  • Advertising
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Comments
  • Friends
  • Contact
• Nanotechnology
• News
  
  • Current News
  • Press Releases
  • Submit Press
  • Press kit
  • Interviews
• Columns
• Products
  
  • Our Products
  • Books
  • Featured Books
• Directories
  
  • Companies/Academic
  • Events
  • Glossary
  • Best Of
• Career Center
• Nano-Social Network
• Nano Consulting
• My Account

Home > News > Nanopillars on Surface of Thin-Film Silicon Could Lead to Better Solar Cells

August 31st, 2011

Nanopillars on Surface of Thin-Film Silicon Could Lead to Better Solar Cells

Abstract:
When one starts to discuss the power conversion efficiency of solar cells, you are bound to ruffle some feathers.

To many it's an apples-and-oranges debate. You have multi-junction solar cells with conversion efficiency rates at 42% while dye-sensitized solar cells are now reaching just 10%. It's hard to see how they compare never mind compete.

Bu what are we really trying to get at with this standard? It would seem to be that we are trying to sort out the best alternative for per kilowatt hour (kWh). Why we don't set aside the whole energy conversion efficiency debate to focus on kWh figures remains a bit of a puzzle for me.

That said, researchers at the A*STAR Institute of Microelectronics in Singapore tackled the fact that the best thin-film photovoltaics only approach half the energy conversion efficiency of conventional bulk silicon solar cells.

Source:
spectrum.ieee.org

Bookmark:

Related News Press

News and information

How do cold ions slide May 24th, 2013

Heinrich Rohrer dies at 79; a father of nanotechnology: With IBM colleague Gerd Binnig, Rohrer invented the scanning tunneling microscope, which can show individual atoms on a surface and move them around May 23rd, 2013

Gold nanocrystal vibration captured on billion-frames-per-second film May 23rd, 2013

Glowing Plant Releases Maker Kit, Enabling Anyone to Make a Glowing Plant at Home: Glowing Plant seeks funds via crowdfunding and raises almost $400,000 May 23rd, 2013

Discoveries

How do cold ions slide May 24th, 2013

Gold nanocrystal vibration captured on billion-frames-per-second film May 23rd, 2013

Whirlpools on the Nanoscale Could Multiply Magnetic Memory: At the Advanced Light Source, Berkeley Lab scientists join an international team to control spin orientation in magnetic nanodisks May 22nd, 2013

Bacterial spare parts filter antibiotic residue from groundwater May 22nd, 2013

Announcements

How do cold ions slide May 24th, 2013

Heinrich Rohrer dies at 79; a father of nanotechnology: With IBM colleague Gerd Binnig, Rohrer invented the scanning tunneling microscope, which can show individual atoms on a surface and move them around May 23rd, 2013

Gold nanocrystal vibration captured on billion-frames-per-second film May 23rd, 2013

Glowing Plant Releases Maker Kit, Enabling Anyone to Make a Glowing Plant at Home: Glowing Plant seeks funds via crowdfunding and raises almost $400,000 May 23rd, 2013

Energy

IDTechEx launches online Market Intelligence Portal May 23rd, 2013

Innovation could bring flexible solar cells, transistors, displays May 22nd, 2013

Researchers Stitch Defects into the World’s Thinnest Semiconductor May 22nd, 2013

Atomic-Scale Investigations Solve Key Puzzle of LED Efficiency: MIT and Brookhaven Lab scientists use electron microscopy imaging techniques to settle a solid-state controversy and raise new experimental possibilities May 22nd, 2013

Solar/Photovoltaic

IDTechEx launches online Market Intelligence Portal May 23rd, 2013

Innovation could bring flexible solar cells, transistors, displays May 22nd, 2013

Researchers Stitch Defects into the World’s Thinnest Semiconductor May 22nd, 2013

Atomic-Scale Investigations Solve Key Puzzle of LED Efficiency: MIT and Brookhaven Lab scientists use electron microscopy imaging techniques to settle a solid-state controversy and raise new experimental possibilities May 22nd, 2013