October 2008

Highest Silicon Solar Cell Efficiency Ever Reached

Scientists have created the first silicon solar cell to achieve 25 percent efficiency following a revision of the international standard.

New Solar Energy Material Captures Every Color Of The Rainbow

Researchers have created a new material that overcomes two of the major obstacles to solar power: it absorbs all the energy contained in sunlight, and generates electrons in a way that makes them easier to capture. Chemists combined electrically conductive plastic with metals including molybdenum and titanium to create the hybrid material.

Dramatically Extending Lifetime Of Organic Solar Cells

Scientists have developed a method to stabilize the nanomorphology of organic solar cells resulting in a lifetime improvement of at least a factor 10. With these stabilized solar cells, efficiencies were achieved comparable to state-of-the-art organic solar cells. This breakthrough paves the way to commercial organic solar cells with an operational lifetime of over 5 years and efficiencies of over 10%.