The production of electricity using renewable energy sources is becoming increasingly demanded for the modern energy industry. Solving the problem of economic efficiency will allow to bring the energy industry to a qualitatively new technological level, reducing the cost of produced electricity and increasing the operating time of power stations.
The latest developments of American researchers have brought the efficiency of electricity generation to 50%.
The study was conducted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (USA). Scientists and engineers have created a solar cell with the efficiency of 47.1%, a record indicator at the current level of technology development.
The created device was called “a six-junction III–V solar cell.” The name itself indicates the main principle that has allowed to achieve high performance indicators of the device – the element received six types of the photoactive layers, consisting of various materials. Almost 140 layers were used to create a panel with a thickness smaller than human hair.
The highest energy efficiency was achieved at the luminance 143 times bigger than the standard brightness of sunlight. This brightness can be achieved by focusing the light. Under standard conditions, the efficiency of the panels is 39.2%.
As a result of the research, the so-called tandem solar cell, consisting of two photoactive layers, was also produced. One layer is based on perovskite, which allows to capture the visible spectrum of light. The second layer is made of copper, indium, gallium and selenium, and is called CIGS. This material captures the infrared spectrum of sunlight. Effective contact between the layers is provided by the layer of rubidium atoms. The effectiveness of such panels is 24.16%. The main advantage of tandem panels is their flexibility and low mass, which makes it possible to create solar panels for spacecraft.
