More Efficient, Cheaper Solar Panels on the Way

By `Lanre Okanlawon

 The past two decades witnessed improvements to conventional processes of manufacturing photovoltaic (PV) cells which translated to increased working efficiencies and significant cuts in production costs. Such changes have made the solar energy technologies more attractive to energy users and competitive with more widely used sources of energy. On the average, solar panels are currently selling for $0.70c per watt- a dramatic decline from 1998 costs of about $10.80 per watt.

More good news- earlier this week, it was announced that a fundamentally new kind of solar cells have been discovered by Professor Michael Strano and his team at MIT and this poses to “re-revolutionalise” the solar energy industry yet again. This peculiar breed of PV cells are made up carbon nanotubes that are able to capture energy from sunlight in the near-infrared region of the spectrum- a feat which cannot be achieved by conventional silicon PV cells. This means that more solar energy will be available to be converted into power- invariably increasing solar cell efficiency. Professor Strano and his team.

Another interesting thing is that the solar cells are entirely made up of carbon atoms that are stable in air. Previous attempts to achieve this proved futile. In Professor Strano’s new discovery, the new all-carbon cells are very stable in air and do not require a layer of polymer to hold the carbon nanotubes into position. This makes the cell structure less complex and easier to attain.

Professor Strano and his team

 A paper written by Professor Michael Strano describing these achievements was recently published in Advanced Material Journal.

 Sources: MIT, Strano Research Group