Additionally the time they need to pay off is shorter. Thin film solar cells have on the one hand a lot of advantages: Producing them consumes less raw materials and energy than producing common solar cells. Researchers from the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Neuchatel, Switzerland, are working on thin film solar cells. So far the researchers were able to increase the efficiency by 30 percent if compared to the efficiency of standard thin film solar cells. video: Īs the light rays are scattered by the glass, they have a longer pathway through the silicon cell and thus generate more electrical current. By removing the nano structured surface of the wafer on the rear side of the solar cell, using a chemical etching process, it is turns into a mirror that reflects the infrared rays back into the cell. Most of it passes through the cell and is lost. Conventional solar cells hardly make use of this wavelength. Here researchers developed a process to enhance the absorption qualities of solar cells for an invisible yet important part of sunlight, infrared light.
The N2P project is coordinated by the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology in Dresden, Germany. Researchers in UK, Switzerland and Germany aim to lower the costs and increase the efficiency. In Europe photovoltaic cells make only a vanishing small share of renewable energy sources. But as long as renewable energy is more expensive than energy produced by coal or nuclear plants, solar energy wont be first choice. The sun has enough power to supply the whole earth with energy.
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