Record Breaking ‘Quantum Well’ Solar Cell

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the US Department of Energy employed an innovative type of ‘quantum well’ solar cell to reach 39.5 percent efficiency.

Using real-life settings, researchers have set a world record for solar cell efficiency.

Hundreds of layers of materials are stacked in order to maximize the capture of electrons energized by the Sun’s photons.

Multi-junction solar cells, which are often used in satellites and space vehicles used on Mars rover missions, employed the quantum well design.

They’ve been confined to specialized uses because to the intricacy and cost of creating them, but the researchers think the new design might be utilized in far broader settings.

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The findings were reported in the journal Joule this month in a study titled ‘Triple-junction solar cells with 39.5 per cent terrestrial and 34.2 per cent space efficiency enabled by thick quantum well superlattices.’

The NREL team created a solar power device with three connections, each designed to capture a different component of the solar spectrum.

Even as the laws of thermodynamics make a 100% efficiency rate unattainable, Dr. France feels that 50% efficiency is “actually very achievable” with this sort of design.

The significant breakthrough was in the intermediate junction, which was composed of gallium arsenide (GaAs) and housed the quantum wells.

Because of this arrangement, the GaAs was able to boost the quantity of light that the solar cell could absorb.

The unique design aims to overcome the high production costs, and the researchers are now striving to make the cells more economically feasible for less niche uses.

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