The Department of Energy of the United States informed about a new world record in efficiency of photovoltaic cells. Those cells reach a performance of a 40.7%, that made its installation cost only $3, producing electricity at a price of 8-10 cents per kilowatt/hour.
This solar cell was developed using a unique structure called multi-junction solar cell. That structure, also called a cascade or a tandem cell, can reach a total efficiency higher than the conversion, capturing a bigger amount of solar spectrum. In the multi–junction cell, individual cells with diverse bandgaps are piled up in a way that allows the sunlight to be absorbed by the material with the biggest bandgap. Photons who has not been absorbed by the first cell are trespassed to the second cell, absorbing the higher rate of solar radiations while it stays transparent to the lower radiation energy rate. Those selective absorbing processes continue through the final cell, with the lower bandgap. All this provokes high efficiency because of capturing more energy from the solar spectrum.
Currently, Boeing uses this kind of solar cells for Space Satellites, based on GaAs.
Solar Energy is not far from becoming today’s future.
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