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
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