The development of new ultra-thin metal electrodes has allowed researchers to create translucent
“Transparent solar panels can somedaytake their place on the windows of homes and office buildings, generating electricity from sunlight that would otherwise be wasted, - said Kai Wang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of the study. "This is a big step - we have finally managed to create efficient translucent solar panels."
Traditional solar panels are made fromsilicon, but scientists believe they are approaching the limits of this technology in an effort to create ever more efficient solar cells. Perovskite elements are a promising alternative, and stacking them on top of traditional elements could create more efficient tandem devices, scientists say.
New aluminum and graphene batteries charge 60 times faster
“We have shown that we can create electrodes froma very thin layer of almost a few atoms of gold, ”said Priya Shashank, assistant vice president for research and professor of materials science and engineering at Penn State. "The thin layer of gold has high electrical conductivity and at the same time does not interfere with the cell's ability to absorb sunlight."
A solar cell based on perovskite, whichdeveloped by the team, achieved an efficiency of 19.8%, which is a record for a translucent battery. And when combined with a traditional silicon solar cell, the tandem device achieved an efficiency of 28.3%, compared to 23.3% for the silicon cell alone. Scientists reported their results in the journal Nano Energy.
“A 5% increase in efficiency is a giganticthe result, the researchers noted. "This means there is about 50 watts more sunlight for every square meter of solar cells."
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