Nowadays, global warming has been considered as the prime issue for global climate change. However, Greenhouse gasses are the major reasons behind this. So it's time for using the alternative source of energies to prevent greenhouse emission.
Among all different alternative sources, solar energy is the cheapest and most convenient among them. Surprisingly most of the solar panels available in the market have only 20 percent efficiency. These solar systems are made of silicon materials which are very common material.
According to the thesis, silicon has the maximum theoretical limit is about 30 percent and practically scientists are able to reach only 25 percent. It means that silicon panel is only utilizing 25 percent of the solar spectrum and the remaining energy is wasted.
In this regard, some comprehensive studies explained the reason behind the limitation of the efficiency. Theoretical explanation implied that the silicon cells primarily capture the light waves from the red spectrum of sunlight. According to Science daily researchers are interested in nano-materials which will capture sunlight in both the red and the blue spectrum. So the efficiency can be doubled from the present one.
Recently a group of researchers from University of Oslo, Centre for Materials Science and Nanotechnology (SMN) are working together on a new panel design based on nanotechnology. The most important goal of the project is, utilizing even more of the spectrum of sunlight than is possible at present. All the comprehensive analysis published in a science journal Appolon.
Project leader Prof. Bengt Svensson of the Department of Physics at the University of Oslo explained about the project during an interview. This modified panel is constructed with two different energy-capturing layers. First one is obviously made of silicon material. This layer generates electricity from the red wavelength of incoming sunlight with high efficiency.
However cascading the second layer is the most interesting tricks to doubling the efficiency. They composed the second layer with the copper oxide which is able to capture the light waves from the blue spectrum of sunlight. Prof. Svensson emphasizes that the combo will absorb more energy around 45 percent and thereby reduces the energy loss.
Meanwhile, researchers are busy to solve the biggest challenge in practical implementation. When two layers deposited together some chemical reactions occurs at the boundary of the layer. This can result in the band gap change and the panel becomes defective.
