Australian scientists report breakthrough in solar cell efficiency

[ScienceRocks]

Australian scientists report breakthrough in solar cell efficiency
April 18, 2012
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(L-R) Professor Tim Schmidt and his research partner Dr Klaus Lips at the Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Energy have made a breakthrough in solar cell technology.

(Phys.org) -- Low cost solar cells suitable for rooftop panels could reach a record-breaking 40 percent efficiency following an early stage breakthrough by a University of Sydney researcher and his German partners.


With Australian Solar Institute support, Professor Tim Schmidt from the University's School of Chemistry, together with the Helmholtz Centre for Materials and Energy, has developed a "turbo for solar cells", called photochemical upconversion that allows energy, normally lost in solar cells, to be turned into electricity.

The finding has been published in the Energy & Environmental Science journal.

Professor Tim Schmidt said using the upconversion technique, a process which harvests the part of the solar spectrum currently unused by solar cells, eliminates the need for costly redevelopment of solar cells.

"We are able to boost efficiency by forcing two energy-poor red photons in the cell to join and make one energy-rich yellow photon that can capture light, which is then turned into electricity," Professor Schmidt said.

"We now have a benchmark for the performance of an upconverting solar cell. We need to improve this several times, but the pathway is now clear."

Australian Solar Institute Executive Director Mark Twidell said this is a great example of successful collaboration between leading Australian and German solar researchers.

"Together, Australia and Germany can accelerate the pace of commercialisation of solar technologies and drive down the cost of solar electricity," Mr Twidell said.

"That's why the Australian Solar Institute is supporting collaboration between the two countries through the Australia-Germany Collaborative Solar Research and Development Program."


Provided by University of Sydney
Australian scientists report breakthrough in solar cell efficiency

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - make a better mousetrap an' ever'body'll beat a path to yer door...

When Solar 'Crossover' Hits, the World Will Quake
6/26/12 --- The most important financial event of this decade will be called "crossover." That's the point at which solar energy becomes cheaper than fossil fuel energy.

Crossover will transform energy economics. It puts a thumb down on energy prices. When costs for exploiting a fuel source go above the crossover price, that fuel source becomes uneconomic, as solar cell production scales to meet it. Crossover happens in different places, in different ways, partly because the economics of solar and fossil fuel energy are different:

* With solar, you buy and install a panel. That's your capital investment. That panel produces energy over some useful life. Once you have accounted for your capital costs, any additional energy becomes free if you maintain the panel and it keeps working.

* With fossil fuels, you first buy and install systems for burning fuel, then buy fuel. The first cost is capitalized (and relatively minor), the second is expensed (and subject to change).

When critics charge that solar is "uneconomic," what they mean is that the capital cost of the panel, spread over its useful life, won't produce as much energy as fossil fuels would at current prices. But critics can't assure current prices. Fuel prices fluctuate. Solar panels installed last year continue to produce this year. The amortized cost of that power may fall below current fuel prices, or may sit above them. Subsidies are used to lower the effective cost of solar capital, but once that panel is installed it's going to produce whether or not the subsidy remains in place.

Right now, it is assumed that the cost of panels, amortized over their life, will produce electricity at a net cost higher than juice bought from the grid. That's a big assumption, but it's what the market thinks. In other words, solar can't exist without subsidies. This subsidy battle has moved to states and localities. States and localities with subsidy programs are good markets for solar panel makers. Until crossover, it's this "buy side" of the market that has the profit -- demand has to be pulled when your costs exceed the competition's. The hope of bulls in companies like First Solar(FSLR) is that subsidies can assure sales until crossover is achieved.

What can upset the balance is new technology that draws power from light outside the visible spectrum, a fuel source now being wasted. The problem is always moving new technology into production. So the big news today comes from a very small company called NatCore, based in Red Bank, N.J., and traded in Toronto under the symbol NXT.

Source

 

[demiurge]

While good news, I've heard LOTS of good news about energy break throughs touted over the last ten years.

None of them have been a significant impact on fossil fuels.

I agree R&D is vital, but so many promising techs have fizzled out. It sure looks like energy will be a mosiac in future generations - with each region producing what it can afford the most effectively. Oil is here to stay though.

I think the next big revolution may be in materials industries - something that can positively impact the cost of escape of the Earth's gravity well, such as a beanstalk. If we can solve that one, we can launch all the solar satellites we want and beam the energy down via microwave.

But who the hell knows what is going to be the next big thing!

 

[bobgnote]

While good news, I've heard LOTS of good news about energy break throughs touted over the last ten years.

None of them have been a significant impact on fossil fuels.

I agree R&D is vital, but so many promising techs have fizzled out. It sure looks like energy will be a mosiac in future generations - with each region producing what it can afford the most effectively. Oil is here to stay though.

I think the next big revolution may be in materials industries - something that can positively impact the cost of escape of the Earth's gravity well, such as a beanstalk. If we can solve that one, we can launch all the solar satellites we want and beam the energy down via microwave.

But who the hell knows what is going to be the next big thing!

Smart brains are needed, but the Obamney-affected cults haven't found this out:

1. Lose the drug war, finally. This cuts the carbon footprint, of police and prisons;
2. Re-discover Henry Ford's hemp-ethanol and indestructible hemp plastic, which puts cyclic CO2 in the form of biomass back into the economy, see also: switchgrass, to be processed into ethanol, by ultrasound;
3. Re-green deserts and polluted areas, or we are going to eat shit and die, anyway, see also: Mass Extinction Event 6, which with human-affected CO2 and CH4 emissions will challenge the Permian/Triassic Extinction Event, for the top spot, as all-time killer.