3D Solar Cell Boosts Efficiency By 80 Percent

Scientists at the USA's Dept. of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory have created a three-dimensional solar cell which could boost photovoltaic (PV) light-to-energy conversion rates by 80 percent.

Typically, when sunlight is strikes the surface of a solar panel and is absorbed by PV cells, some of the charge created by solar photons becomes trapped by natural flaws in the bulk materials that make up the layers of the cell, resulting in a loss of final electricity output.

Oak Ridge’s 3D solar cell uses zinc-oxide n-type nanocenes to serve a framework for conducting electrons. A p-type matrix of polycrystalline cadmium telluride – often used in thin-film solar panel manufacture - serves as the primary photon absorber medium and hole conductor.


With the new structure and materials, the new cell demonstrated a light-to-energy conversion efficiency rate of 3.2 percent, compared to 1.8 percent efficiency of a conventional two-dimensional solar cell structure.

Source: Renewable Energy News