Australian engineers have built photovoltaic cells that have set a new world record for harvesting the sun’s energy in a breakthrough that has come decades earlier than anticipated. The new cells are able to harvest 24% of the sun’s energy without using concentrators. The previous record was 34.5%. The new cells are more efficient and also considerably smaller than earlier models at just 28 square centimeters. Researcher Mark Keevers explained that "Extracting more energy from every beam of sunlight is critical to reducing the cost of electricity generated by solar cells as it lowers the investment needed, and delivering payback faster." The new cell is likely to be used in solar towers which concentrate sunlight through mirrors before converting it into electricity.
Australian engineers have built photovoltaic cells that have set a new world record for harvesting the sun’s energy in a breakthrough that has come decades earlier than anticipated. The new cells are able to harvest 34.5% of the sun’s energy without using concentrators. The previous record was 24%. The new cells are more efficient and also considerably smaller than earlier models at just 28 square centimeters. Researcher Mark Keevers explained that "Extracting more energy from every beam of sunlight is critical to reducing the cost of electricity generated by solar cells as it lowers the investment needed, and delivering payback faster." The new cell is likely to be used in solar towers which concentrate sunlight through mirrors before converting it into electricity.