Credit: theregeneration/flickr

By Rich Bowden

Australian and U.S. researchers have teamed up to create a breakthrough in solar efficiency.

A solar energy team from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence, along with two U.S. groups, has achieved a new world record of 43 per cent of sunlight converted into electricity.

Professor Martin Green, Research Director from the Centre and leader of the research said the breakthrough has set a new benchmark for converting sunlight into electricity, according to a August 25 UNSW news release.

“Because sunlight is made up of many colours of different energy, ranging from the high energy ultraviolet to the low energy infrared, a combination of solar cells of different materials can convert sunlight more efficiently than any single cell,” he said.

“Professor Green, along with colleague Dr Anita Ho-Baillie and their colleagues, developed a silicon cell which was optimised to capture light at the red and near-infrared end of the spectrum,” said the university.

“That cell was able to convert up to 46 per cent of light into electricity. When combined with four other cells, each optimised for different parts of the solar spectrum, the five-cell combination converted 43 per cent of the sunlight into electricity, bettering the previous world record by 0.3 per cent,” it continued.

Prof Green was quoted as saying the “…group’s silicon cell was the key contributor to the new result.”

Professor Stuart Wenham, Director of the ARC Centre was quoted by the university as saying the new cell was an “important pointer for the future potential of solar photovoltaic power.”

Originally published in The Tech Herald.

Tags: alternative energy, electricity, Martin Green, photovoltaics, Renewable energy, solar cell, University of New South Wales, UNSW