Academia Sinica today announced a breakthrough in next-generation solar cell technology that is about 30 percent more efficient than currently available products.
Taiwan has limited land to dedicate to solar energy generation, which makes increasing efficiency vital, Academia Sinica said in a news release.
The most efficient silicon-based solar cells currently available are about 22 to 24 percent efficient, it said.
Photo courtesy of Academia Sinica
To achieve more than 31 percent efficiency, researchers used multi-junction and stacked designs of mineral films combined with the silicon solar cells, it said.
Under Academia Sinica President James Liao’s (廖俊智) direction, the institute invited researchers from around Taiwan to form a team to research stacked solar cell technology, said Chu Chih-wei (朱治偉), a researcher at the institute’s Center for Sustainability Science.
The team has members from the institute, National Cheng Kung University, National Tsing Hua University and Ming Chi University of Technology, among others, the news release said.
With this technology, Taiwan’s solar power generation capacity can increase without dedicating more land to it, Liao said.
Although the cells are still small-scale, they prove Taiwan’s ability to independently develop and research the technology, researcher Guo Tzung-fang (郭宗枋) said.
They also have potential for commercial applications, Guo added.
The cells have received significant attention for being made out of common materials, making them cheap to produce, highly efficient and recyclable, said professor Wei Tzu-chien (衛子健) from National Tsing Hua University’s Department of Chemical Engineering.
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