Solar Energy Breakthrough Generates Electricity From Invisible Light

With the trajectory our world is moving in, we¡¯re all desperately trying to find better and cleaner ways to produce energy.

And among several clean energy sources, solar energy surely is the most popular -- especially for turning sunlight into electricity.

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However, did you know that sunlight that we experience on Earth is far more complex and has a lot more to give than what current solar energy is capable of absorbing?

A ray of light includes IR (infrared) light that provides us with heat as well as UV or ultraviolet or UV light that can severely damage our skin. These spectrums of light exist but aren¡¯t visible to the naked eye. What¡¯s worse, solar cells don¡¯t really make the most of these rays.

To stop this from happening, researchers have developed two techniques to effectively absorb invisible light to not let it go to waste. First, they¡¯ve involved using tiny semiconductors called quantum dots that absorb low energy light and turn it into visible light to save the energy.

Second, they¡¯ve used a new material called perovskites to create solar modules that offer better stability and efficiency than conventional solar panels made using silicon.

Solar energy efficiency improvement in solar panels

Professor Tim Schmidt from UNSW Sydney, one of the authors of the study explains, ¡°Most solar cells... are made from silicon, which cannot respond to light less energetic than the near-infrared. This means that some parts of the light spectrum are going unused by many of our current devices and technologies.¡±

Researchers claim that panels made from perovskites are not only more efficient but also fairly inexpensive to mass-produce. Moreover, the material is flexible and lightweight. The only issue that remains now is with the scaling up of using this material which requires the availability of better quality materials as well as better fabrication techniques as slightest of defect in the material can severely impact the performance.

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Researchers have somewhat circumvented this challenge with their novel approach that makes use of multiple layers of the material to prevent the energy from getting lost on its way while also preventing toxic chemicals from leaking in the process.

Researchers managed to achieve an efficiency of 16.6 percent on a 22.4cm module which in the case of solar energy is pretty good. The panel also maintained delivering high-performance even after 2000 hours of constant use. Researchers are now working to test these techniques on larger modules and eventually commercialising the tech in the near future.