The future of solar power: Multi-junction solar cells
The future of solar power: Multi-junction solar cells
Learn about efforts to increase the efficiency of solar cells.
Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail © Andrii Shevchuk/Dreamstime.com
Transcript
Generating photovoltaic electricity on your own roof at home has one huge advantage. It's produced right where it's needed. Though, if it's to be competitive it mustn't be more expensive than the electricity consumers draw from the power grid. The bottom line is solar cells of the future need to be efficient and affordable in order to compete with other forms of energy.
Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems have succeeded in developing a module that concentrates the sun's energy, making it twice as efficient as conventional technology. Conventional solar cells use only light of specific wavelengths. The rest of the energy goes to waste. Not so with the new method developed by the researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute. Rather than the conventional compounds, it uses new materials. They comprise semiconductor compounds like gallium, indium or arsenic, each of which utilizes light of a different wavelength. In a special production process, these photoactive layers are superimposed, one on top of the other, creating solar cells that exploit nearly the entire spectrum of sunlight to generate electricity. That's why the new cells are so called multi-junction solar cells. The advantage of this new technology is that the cells turn 41 percent of light energy into electrical power - a world record.
To make the most of the efficient little cells, the engineers use specially designed modules to concentrate the sun's light by a factor of 500. The researchers use a laser to check that the lens is in the optimal position. The lens needs to focus the parallel rays of the sun onto one point, which is where the cell is placed. The highly efficient cell then turns the concentrated light energy into electricity.
The new technology is ideal for use in countries that get a lot of sunlight, like Spain. This test field is located 200 kilometers from Madrid. When the weather is sunny, its half a million cells generate electricity with an output of 200 kilowatts. And that's enough to power 40 Spanish households, but there's a long way to go. The goal is mass production, which would make the modules considerably less expensive. By the middle of the next decade, the engineers want their technology to compete with conventional methods of generating electricity.
Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems have succeeded in developing a module that concentrates the sun's energy, making it twice as efficient as conventional technology. Conventional solar cells use only light of specific wavelengths. The rest of the energy goes to waste. Not so with the new method developed by the researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute. Rather than the conventional compounds, it uses new materials. They comprise semiconductor compounds like gallium, indium or arsenic, each of which utilizes light of a different wavelength. In a special production process, these photoactive layers are superimposed, one on top of the other, creating solar cells that exploit nearly the entire spectrum of sunlight to generate electricity. That's why the new cells are so called multi-junction solar cells. The advantage of this new technology is that the cells turn 41 percent of light energy into electrical power - a world record.
To make the most of the efficient little cells, the engineers use specially designed modules to concentrate the sun's light by a factor of 500. The researchers use a laser to check that the lens is in the optimal position. The lens needs to focus the parallel rays of the sun onto one point, which is where the cell is placed. The highly efficient cell then turns the concentrated light energy into electricity.
The new technology is ideal for use in countries that get a lot of sunlight, like Spain. This test field is located 200 kilometers from Madrid. When the weather is sunny, its half a million cells generate electricity with an output of 200 kilowatts. And that's enough to power 40 Spanish households, but there's a long way to go. The goal is mass production, which would make the modules considerably less expensive. By the middle of the next decade, the engineers want their technology to compete with conventional methods of generating electricity.