Solar cells with tiny holes! Forget rooftop solar panels to generate energy, South Korean researchers think solar windows will be a driver of adoption in the future.
Solar Cells Got Transparent By Tiny Holes
What is transparent solar cell?
Transparent Solar Panels. Conventional solar panels, more specifically solar photovoltaic panels, absorb sunlight and convert photons (particles of sunlight) into usable energy. The difficulty with making transparent solar panels is that the sunlight passes through the transparent material.
A new see-through solar cell made from inexpensive silicon can generate useful levels of electricity from the light that falls on windows. The development avoids some of the problems of existing transparent solar cells, including high costs and the low levels of electricity they generate.
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Most solar cells are opaque, and used mainly on rooftops and in outdoor installations. But researchers hope transparent solar cells can one day fill the vast building space now covered by exterior windows.
Another technique! While Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been grappling with tiles that harvest sunlight to power homes, Maryland-based SolarWindow thinks the future could come from a different angle. The company claims that, when installed on a 50-story building, its solar windows could generate up to 50 times more power than conventional roof panels (December 2017).
SolarWindow Technologies is a company gearing up to produce electricity generating windows.
Contenders include dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs), which can be applied to windows as thin films. Other designs generate electricity from invisible infrared or ultraviolet light.
Punching holes in opaque solar cells turns them transparent
But these approaches have drawbacks, explains Kwanyong Seo of the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea, who leads the lab that developed the new cells. DSSCs use often expensive or unstable new materials, which tint light red, green or blue. ‘We don’t want to show a colour, although it is very pretty,’ says Seo.
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Solar Cells Transparent And Efficient
Does solar energy affect human health?
Solar energy decreases greenhouse gas emissions
Greenhouse gases, which are produced when fossil fuels are burned, lead to rising global temperatures and climate change. One home installing a solar energy system can have a measurable effect on the environment
Seo’s solution is to engineer a conventional crystalline silicon wafer with tiny holes, about 100µm across, which are hidden from sight by spacing them at less than the minimum angular resolution of the human eye. The result is a neutrally-coloured, semi-transparent silicon solar cell. The darkest grade, which lets through 20% of light, has a conversion efficiency of 12.2%, Seo says.
Are old solar panels toxic?
Solar panels are manufactured using hazardous materials, such as sulfuric acid and phosphine gas, which make them difficult to recycle. According to an analysis by Environmental Progress, solar panels create about 300 times more toxic waste per unit of electricity generated than nuclear power plants
That’s less than opaque silicon cells, which can have efficiencies of above 20%, but more than most transparent solar cells, which range from 5 to 7%. The researchers developed the light transmission windows by taking into account the hole diameters in which visible light wavelengths can be transmitted. They are effective as windows because the efficiency doesn't decline if they are placed vertically. That isn't the case with traditional solar cells. According to one report if a solar cell is placed vertically it may lose as much as 30% of its efficiency. The aim of the researchers is to increase efficiency to 15%.
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“Silicon substrate is a very popular material in the semiconductor industry,” says Seo. “We believe that this vision can apply to many different applications, such as transparent electronics. It can also be applied to mobile devices as an energy source.”
Before you go!
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