Researchers at MIT have figured out a new technique to make a traditional silicon solar cell — the kind that makes up most solar panels on rooftops — more efficient. The scientists published the findings in Nature Nanotechnology this week.
The innovation embeds a two-layer device made of carbon nanotubes and photonic crystals between the solar cell and the sun’s light. The device absorbs the sunlight, heats up, and emits light that has a specific wavelength that can be used efficiently by the adjacent solar cell. A typical silicon solar cell doesn’t use all of the wavelengths of sunlight, and many go to waste.
The MIT researchers say that with these types of designs, which use heat to boost efficiency, some solar cells in theory could one day produce an efficiency of over 80 percent. In comparison some of the highest efficient solar cells in mass production currently…