The centerpiece of this solar simulator is a tiny photoelectrochemical cell, capable of pushing hydrogen from water without the need for standalone renewable energy facilities (courtesy of University of Tübingen under copyright by Valentin Marquardt/University of Tübingen).
Photoelectrochemical cells can push green hydrogen directly from water without the need for standalone solar panels.
Editor’s Note: In May, Sharp regained the world’s triple-junction, non-concentrator solar cell efficiency record — 37.9%. Now, it has also taken the overall world solar cell efficiency record — 44.4%. Here’s another repost from Solar Love on the news. A research team at Sharp Corporation has announced that it has created a solar … [continued]
A new conversion efficiency record of 20.4% has been set for thin-film solar cells by researchers at Empa and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. The new record of 20.4% is a big improvement over the previous record achieved by this team (18.7%) in May 2011. The … [continued]
IBM Materials Science researchers, in conjunction with partners from Solar Frontier, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo (TOK) and DelSolar, have developed an efficient and affordable PV cell that is made from abundant natural materials, and has already crushed the world record for PV solar-to-electric power conversion efficiency using earth-abundant materials. The team … [continued]
UPDATE (January 3, 12:40 EST): I contacted Solar3D to get more clarity on what exactly achieved this 25.47%. Here’s Solar3D CEO Jim Nelson’s response: “The test is on a design–it is an analytical test, not a test on a developed prototype.” Solar 3D brings silicon solar cell efficiency record up … [continued]
