A new advance in solar cells that tips the surface with minuscule cone structures could neutralize manufacturing defects, boosting efficiency up to 80%. In conventional solar panels, more than 50% of the charges generated by sunlight are lost due to defects. Scientist Jun Xu and his team are looking at how nanocones can neutralize the defects. The idea isn't to fix the defects but to make them irrelevant. With the nanocones the team increased the overall electric charge to overcome the pitfalls of defects. The efficiency gains are relatively minor -- rising to 3.2 percent, compared to 1.8 percent for panels without the nanocones. "Our efficiency is moderate in generation, but the difference between the two platforms is huge," Xu said, referring to the models with and without nanocones. In the real world, even a much smaller percentage increase would be an important achievement for solar.
Reaction: This is really interesting. I didn't know that solar panels had a lot of defects. This could really expand the possibilities for solar energy. It could make it more efficient. I think the nanocones will improve solar panels and I hope that this works for Jun Xu and his team. In class we're learning about all the different types of energies and its important that the energies keep improving.
Questions:
1) Do you think this will improve solar power?
2) What is your opinion on switching to alternative energies?
3) Are there other alternative energies that you think should be looked into more? Or should solar be the main focus? explain.
This is a great improvement in solar energy! This sounds very efficient and useful, improvements like this will really improve our environment for future generations.
ReplyDelete1) I think that it will improve solar energy because it has already been proven to be better then panels without nanocones
2)I think switching to alternative energies is necessary
It is for this reason that you should take into consideration the amount of space that your roof can offer.
ReplyDeleteWhat people seem to forget is that the advent of a solar power system means less reliance on a public service utility company, so there will be annual savings achieved from that expenditure alone.
This sounds like great news! This article was really fascinating, I had no idea solar panels had alot of defects. I agree with Alyssa, this new discovery will hopefully make solar panels much more efficient! I am doing research on solar power for my project and it seems like if we can get more people to switch to solar power, it will be much cheeper and better for the environment! If Jun Xu can follow through with this discovery, it will hopefully convince more people to use solar power!
ReplyDelete2. I think that it is very important for our society to switch to alternative energy because we are running out of fossil fuels and they are polluting our air!
This is pretty interesting. I can't believe solar panels were so defective. I'm very glad for this fix. In my neighborhood there is a house with solar panels. It wouldn't be right to them if those panels didn't work.
ReplyDelete1. I definitely think this will improve solar energy because if the defects are limited then the less problems there will be. The less problems the happier everyone is.
The fact that they are trying to make defects irrelevant is great! Solar power is one of the best alternative energies out there. Of course it has some downfalls, like most alternative energies, but it is the energy of the future in my opinion.
ReplyDelete3. There are definitely more alternative enegies that should be looked into, such as wind energy. It is both clean and efficient just like solar power.