Nanotechnology Improves Solar Cell 50% Efficiency

The European Union recently approved the implementation of a thin-film solar cell project based on nanoscale materials and processes for the development and scale-up of low-cost, high-efficiency* compound solar cells (SCALENANO). The project's total budget exceeds 10 million euros and the implementation period is February 2012. 1st to July 31st, 2015.

The decline in the price of solar cells has led the industry to discover that the use of technology to increase conversion efficiency and find alternative materials that are cheaper than traditional materials such as crystalline germanium are important opportunities for obtaining future markets. As a technology widely used in various fields such as scientific research and electronics, nanomaterials have also been proved by experts to significantly increase the conversion efficiency of solar cells and significantly reduce costs.

The U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency has discovered that solar cells can absorb more than 50% of solar panels by breaking down sunlight into different parts through the refraction of nanomaterials and allowing solar cells to absorb certain spectral colors. Despite the significant increase in efficiency, the cost is currently difficult to drop to the level that can compete with silicon.

David Smith, a materials scientist at Duke University, and colleagues have invented nanometer cubes scattered on gold films to absorb light and increase solar efficiency. The nanometer squares are scattered on the polymer coating metal material and can absorb all the sunlight that shines on it, and can be produced on a large scale, even for home use.

In addition, scientists at North Carolina State University in the United States stated that they can make thinner thin-film solar cells with nano-layer technology without affecting their ability to absorb solar energy. At the same time, this will also significantly reduce the manufacturing cost of new batteries, and can be widely used in many other solar cell materials, such as cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS).