Student wins James Dyson Award for solar panels made from food waste

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Researchers have set a new efficiency record for a valuable solar panel, and “temptingly” approached the 30% milestone of 30 dreams.
Solar panels are composed of a layered combination of two effective semiconductors, which can work together to improve all-silicon panels by adding “emerging challenger” perovskites.
The cell in this study is a tandem cell, which means it is a single cell with multiple wavelength phases. It’s like sweeping the floor and then thinking with a mop: You use two methods to capture different kinds of things.
This new battery layer has an appropriate amount of buffer between the perovskite and the silicon layer so that they can all work at maximum efficiency.
Batteries like the one in this study (with a surface area of ​​only 1 square centimeter) are made of “self-assembled” materials, which means that organic materials can spread by themselves, organize and form the interface between the panel surfaces. This means that the research field of these materials is a very new field, and there is a lot of room for clever improvements to greatly improve efficiency.
These researchers did just that, “Using a specially adjusted layer composition can not only connect the electrode layers, but also hold the two types of batteries together to achieve a new record,” ScienceAlert reports.
Careful design allows them to use perovskite with optimal efficiency without causing phase instability common in existing iterative designs.
If you are not sure where to start, then this solar panel is a failsafe option. It is relatively budget-friendly (solar panels can quickly get expensive prices) and perform well. It is made of PET, EVA and monocrystalline silicon, with anti-reflective properties and high transparency. It is also easy to use and compact in size, making it easy to store when not needed.
If you live in a dark place, you may worry that solar panels are not suitable for you, but in fact, they perform very well in low light conditions. The 100-watt photovoltaic panel with high conversion efficiency can charge 12v/24v batteries and comes with a portable folding suitcase. If you are camping, this carry-on bag is easy to carry; if the power goes out, you can easily store it at home.
If you want to go all out, you can’t go wrong with Renology’s 10 300-watt solar panels. They can withstand high winds and heavy snow, have anti-reflection functions, and are versatile. These are ideal for residential or commercial roofs, but they are also compatible with ground installation.
Anyone who is not familiar with solar panels should start with a good kit, such as Renology’s kit. You will get everything you need, including a 100W solar panel, a 30A PWM negative ground charge controller, MC4 connector, an 8Ft 10 AWG tray cable, and a Z bracket for RV or marine installation. It can be fully charged with a 50Ah battery with 50% power in 3 hours.
ScienceAlert said that it should be easy to enlarge the panel by one centimeter, but it is not clear that this is true. Finding the right balance between the optimized perovskite film and the most effective, scalable interface material (the material grown between the layers of solar material) is still in progress.
But that’s why this record is so exciting: it is a good thing in itself, and it makes people optimistic about the future of perovskite tandem batteries.
So what is perovskite and why should we bother? Perovskites are “synthetic compounds with an orthorhombic crystal structure, have the same names as natural minerals, and have the same chemical formula,” ScienceDirect explained.
In nature, perovskites “are found as bright black cubes in many mafic igneous rocks, related pegmatites, and in metamorphic contact zones,” Great Britain explained, which means rich iron or even Quartz mixed volcanic rock. Perovskite is calcium titanate, and its chemical symbol is CaTiO3.
The point is that perovskite has a better ability to absorb low-wavelength sunlight than silicon, making it more useful in many situations. Using these two functions simultaneously in a solar panel can maximize wavelength coverage.
Scientists (occasionally) use natural perovskites, original perovskites made in the laboratory, and slightly changed structures of crystalline minerals. They are convinced that a certain combination of these factors will lead to better and better panels. Experts say that from the past 10 years to the next 10 years and beyond, solar energy will continue to develop rapidly.


Post time: Jan-06-2021