Nanowires Make More-Powerful Solar Cells

Posted by Heartmind _Featured_, Alternative Energy, Science, Technology Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

(TechNewsDaily) The Sun’s energy may seem limitless, but the ability to convert it into electricity with silicon solar cells has been pretty limited — at less than 10 percent efficiency. Now researchers have announced a new kind of cell using nanowires, filaments just a few nanometers thick, to make solar cells with efficiency as high as 13.8 percent. (A nanometer is one billionth of a meter.) The trick is to use nanowires of just the right thickness to capture the most photos and with a variety of materials to absorb a broader range of wavelengths in sunlight.

Here is the press release:

Breakthrough for solar cell research

In the latest issue of Science, researchers from Lund University in Sweden have shown how nanowires could pave the way for more efficient and cheaper solar cells.

“Our findings are the first to show that it really is possible to use nanowires to manufacture solar cells”, says Magnus Borgström, a researcher in semiconductor physics and the principal author.

Research on solar cell nanowires is on the rise globally. Until now the unattained dream figure was ten per cent efficiency — but now Dr. Borgström and his colleagues are able to report an efficiency of 13.8 per cent.

The nanowires are made of the semiconductor material indium phosphide and work like antennae that absorb sunlight and generate power. The nanowires are assembled on surfaces of one square millimetre that each house four million nanowires. A nanowire solar cell can produce an effect per active surface unit several times greater than today’s silicon cells.

Nanowire solar cells have not yet made it beyond the laboratory, but the plan is that the technology could be used in large solar power plants in sunny regions such as the south-western USA, southern Spain and Africa.

The Lund researchers have now managed to identify the ideal diameter of the nanowires and how to synthesise them. “The right size is essential for the nanowires to absorb as many photons as possible. If they are just a few tenths of a nanometre too small their function is significantly impaired,” explains Magnus Borgström…

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