For years, solar powered electricity generation has been an expanding field in the industry of renewable energy. Solar energy offers a great way to cut down on energy costs while also avoiding the usage of fossil fuels. The only problem with it is that with our current technology, solar panels are not particularly efficient. Most panels can only convert about 11-15% of the solar energy they are exposed to into electricity. this means that in order to generate any substantial amount of energy, a large surface area of panels is required. The need for this many panels makes the cost of buying and installing solar panels exorbitantly expensive.
Recently a technology at Stanford University has been developed called perovskite. This material can be added to the silicon cells in solar panels to increase their efficiency. Researchers found that when perovskite was added to solar cells that originally had an 11.4% efficiency, the efficiency of these cells increased to 11%. These 50% increases can substantially reduce the number of solar panels required in some installations to half. Being comprised of ammonia, iodine, and lead, the perovskite is also relatively simple and cheap to produce. The only problem is creating a structure of perovskite that can last for the life of the silicon panel. In the near future we can expect solar companies to incorporate this material into their products, thus launching the field of solar technology into the world of efficiency.
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/534511/a-cheap-material-boosts-solar-cells-by-50-percent/
Hi Max, I noticed that you had a mistake "Researchers found that when perovskite was added to solar cells that originally had an 11.4% efficiency, the efficiency of these cells increased to 11%". What is the corrected efficiency percentage that the researchers found after adding perovskite?
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