An atom-thin photovoltaic device with high quantum efficiency has been developed by an international team of researchers, researchers from the University of Boston, University of Oxford, and the National University of Singapore. The atom-thin photovoltaic device has a quantum efficiency of 30%, which is simply a measure of the number of photons … [continued]
Scientists working at the Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences (SIMES) have improved an innovative solar-energy device to be about 100 times more efficient than its previous design in converting the sun’s light and heat into electricity. “This is a major step toward making practical devices based on our … [continued]
In a potentially breakthrough discovery, researchers at Northwestern University have designed a new type of organic solar cell that will very likely lead to much higher efficiency and cheaper solar power. The new cell design is based around a new geometrical pattern to be used in the ‘scattering layer’ of … [continued]
A revolutionary new design for a concentrator solar cell has been created by researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU). The new design works extremely well when it’s irradiated from the side, generating solar conversion efficiencies that are near those of the most ultra-efficient photovoltaics. The new cell … [continued]
The first solar cell with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) that exceeds 100 percent for photons with energies in the solar range has been created. With these new solar cells, every blue photon that is absorbed can generate up to 30 percent more current than with current technologies. The … [continued]
Solar cell efficiency is set to greatly increase in the next few years thanks to newly created next-gen antireflection coatings. The new nanomaterial coatings will help to limit the amount of light that is reflected away by the surfaces of solar cells. In the past few years, materials with … [continued]
By controlling how the ‘mixing’ occurs between acceptor and donor layers (solar cell domains) in polymer-based solar cells, efficiency could be greatly boosted, says new research from a team that includes physicists from North Carolina State University. This new research has given some insight into the most inner workings … [continued]
As you may have noticed in the story on the huge NREL study just published showing that 80% of US electricity could easily come from renewable sources, concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) would play a big part in that. But would such clean technology run into problematic material constraints? … [continued]
Some more cool cleantech news from the MIT News Office: A multidisciplinary team of researchers at MIT and in Spain has found a new mathematical approach to simulating the electronic behavior of noncrystalline materials, which may eventually play an important part in new devices including solar cells, organic LED … [continued]
Here’s some fun and exciting news from researchers at MIT about a new type of photovoltaic device that can harness the heat radiation that most solar cells ignore. Enjoy! (The news was received via email, but it has also been published at the MIT News Office.) CAMBRIDGE, MA. — … [continued]
