Tag: photovoltaic cells
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Boosting solar cell efficiency with wires smaller than the wavelength of light
Researchers working on the next generation of photovoltaic solar cells—cells that convert sunlight directly into electrical current—are looking toward exotic materials (which are expensive) or more common substances, but use subtler methods to extract energy. A new study used a basic semiconductor material, already in use in solar cell research, but made it into a…
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Pore, pore, pitiful solar cells
There’s just one word for the ‘teens: plastics photovoltaics. A new experiment may have solved a problem in nanostructured silicon solar cells: a type of photovoltaic cell that uses pores to increase the effective surface area for collection of light. By separating the contribution by surface and interior recombination effects, the NREL study found that…
Bowler Hat Science 