A team in the US has developed a new solar cell with a 20% conversion rate that
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2022/11/04 13:51:07
Renewable energy and zero pollution are the two biggest advantages of solar energy, but compared with other new energy sources, its disadvantages are also obvious, such as high conversion rate, high conversion cost, strict requirements on natural environmental conditions, etc., these reasons make solar energy can only occupy a small segment in the new energy market. But in fact, if we can greatly improve the efficiency of converting solar energy, then solar energy will light the way for the future development of human civilization.
According to the news of July 15, a research team from the University of Wisconsin in the United States recently developed a new set of solar energy conversion device, the device is called "solar fluid cell". The team says the new device is better than most solar converters on the market today, both in terms of cost and efficiency. So what's so interesting about this device?
What causes the low efficiency of solar energy conversion?
Low solar conversion rates are a problem we often hear about in the media, but most people are aware of the results, not the reasons behind them. The low efficiency of solar energy conversion exists because the conversion device is not yet adapted to all wavelengths of light. Anyone who knows a little about sunlight knows that it is made up of different bands of light, and different bands of light contain different amounts of energy.
The higher energy photons hit the solar panel and can go deeper until they are finally absorbed. Photons with insufficient energy cannot reach the deep structure of the receiver plate and thus cannot be converted into electricity. Secondly, part of the sunlight is reflected off the receiving plate, which will also reduce the efficiency of solar energy conversion.
How efficient is the new battery?
According to the report, the team at the University of Wisconsin first used theoretical modeling to screen out chemicals that would hold at ideal voltages, and then used different combinations of these chemicals to find out which combination would achieve higher conversion efficiency. The researchers found that a combination of perovskite and silicon was most efficient in the context of a flow cell, and that's how their solar flow cell was created.
Most perovskite cells on the market today have a solar conversion efficiency of 18 percent or less, but the team's solar flow cell could increase that to about 20 percent. Not only that, the battery can maintain high efficiency for more than 10 hours of continuous operation, but also excellent life and battery capacity. Although the conversion rate of new energy cells increased by only 2%, it could be a huge boost for the entire solar cell industry.
Short step without even thousands of miles, not small stream beyond into the sea
Since the late last century, human beings have been studying how to convert solar energy into electricity. Now, decades have passed, there is still no shocking breakthrough in this field, and the efficiency of solar energy conversion is still very low. However, as an old Chinese saying goes, "a thousand miles cannot be made without a small step, and a river cannot be made into a sea without a small flow." Although we are moving slowly in this regard, we are still accumulating experience and technology, and quantitative change will eventually lead to qualitative change.
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