University of Minnesota researchers clear major hurdle in road to high-efficiency solar cells

University of Minnesota researchers clear major hurdle in road to high-efficiency solar cells

U of M researchers have cleared a major hurdle in the drive to build solar cells with potential efficiencies up to twice as high as current levels.

A team of University of Minnesota-led researchers has cleared a major hurdle in the drive to build solar cells with potential efficiencies up to twice as high as current levels, which rarely exceed 30 percent.

By showing how energy that is now being lost from semiconductors in solar cells can be captured and transferred to electric circuits, the team has opened a new avenue for solar cell researchers seeking to build cheaper, more efficient solar energy devices. The work is published in this week’s Science.

A system built on the research could also slash the cost of manufacturing solar cells by removing the need to process them at very high temperatures.

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