New solar panel tech could trap heat for 1,000 times longer to beat a long-standing limit in energy production
- New and improved solar panel materials have been analyzed
- Two key physics effects combine to create the improvements
- It could help panels break through the 33% energy conversion rate
There's a long-standing physics theory that suggests solar panels will only ever be able to convert a maximum of 33% of the sunlight that comes their way, but a team from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands has detailed a way to harvest extra energy from 'hot' electrons that could push through this limit.
Solar panels work by using the photons from sunshine to jump-start electrons. With the most energetic photons, the result is super-charged, so-called hot electrons, that have the potential to generate significantly more electricity — but the problem is they cool down too quickly and lose the energy as heat before it can be captured.
This new research builds on previous studiesreporting a promising new tin-based...
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