U.S. researchers claim solar energy advance
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug 2, 2010 -- UPI
Scientists say a new process utilizing both the light and heat of solar
radiation could double the efficiency of electricity-generating solar
panels.
Stanford University researchers say the technology, called "photon
enhanced thermionic emission," could lower the costs of solar energy
production to the point where it is competitive with oil as an energy
source, a university release said Monday.
Unlike current solar panels, which become less efficient as
temperatures, panels using the PETE process excel at higher
temperatures, the release said.
"This is really a conceptual breakthrough, a new energy conversion
process, not just a new material or a slightly different tweak,"
Stanford Professor Nick Melosh said. "It is actually something
fundamentally different about how you can harvest energy."
Such devices could be made with cheap and easily available materials,
the release said.
Melosh's team found that coating a piece of semiconducting material with
a thin layer of the metal cesium produced a material able to use both
light and heat to generate electricity.
"The PETE process could really give the feasibility of solar power a big
boost," Melosh said. "Even if we don't achieve perfect efficiency, let's
say we give a 10 percent boost to the efficiency of solar conversion,
going from 20 percent efficiency to 30 percent; that is still a 50
percent increase overall."
News Provided By
|