Australian solar fields
Credit: Reuters / Rebekah Kebede
Australian researchers have developed a new method of using commercial solar panels that converts more electricity from sunlight than ever before.
The new photovoltaic (PV) system created by University of New South Wales (UNSW) researchers converts 40 percent of solar light into electrical energy, which is a 15 percent increase over regular panels.(emphasis added)
Laboratory tests have shown the solar cell method can convert up to 46 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity. The new Australian technique works with regular commercial PV panels under normal conditions, and could potentially make solar plants more competitive with other energy sources, such as fossil fuels.
“This is the highest efficiency ever reported for sunlight conversion into electricity,” UNSW Professor Martin Green said in a statement. “We used commercial solar cells, but in a new way, so these efficiency improvements are readily accessible to the solar industry.”
Traditional solar energy production uses one solar cell, which limits the conversion of sunlight to electricity to around […]
I noticed another new technology, but I am afraid I forgot where, that has the storage built right into the panels so there is no need to use batteries; but this is so new it may be years before it becomes commercial, WITHOUT GOVERNMENT INVESTMENT! If we could stop wasting money, as the last article impresses upon us, maybe we could make the investment for good things like solar energy instead of wasting our money we “BORROW” from the FED for good instead of “BAD WARS”.