Solar power is one of the most crucial things for researchers to focus on because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up stopping climate change in its tracks. A critical factor that must be considered in solar cells is how efficiently they can convert energy, and researchers just started using a material that is much more efficient than might have been the case otherwise.
It is important to note that silicon currently has an efficiency of 22%. It is the most widely used material for solar cells in the world, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, there are many things that make it less than ideal. The low efficiency aside, silicon is also extremely costly which makes these solar cells a little too expensive for the average consumer.
This is where perovskite comes in. This synthetic material is being called game changer by people like Michael McGehee, who currently teaches in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute at CU Boulder.
The main benefit of perovskite cells is that they can potentially end up converting 50% of available energy into usable electricity, which is a massive step forward with all things having been considered and taken into account. According to McGehee, the renewable energy market will need to grow by at least fivefold and potentially even tenfold in order to meet increasing demand, and the doubling of efficiency brought about by perovskite cells will be a massive help in that regard.
One potential obstacle of perovskite cells is the difficulty of coating it onto glass panels that act as building blocks for the solar system. The use of nitrogen gas in this process reduces the efficiency, so this will be something that will have to be rectified if perovskite can replace silicon as the main source of solar energy. It will be interesting to see where things go from here on out, since this material will have to be optimized in the near future.
Image: AI-gen
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It is important to note that silicon currently has an efficiency of 22%. It is the most widely used material for solar cells in the world, but in spite of the fact that this is the case, there are many things that make it less than ideal. The low efficiency aside, silicon is also extremely costly which makes these solar cells a little too expensive for the average consumer.
This is where perovskite comes in. This synthetic material is being called game changer by people like Michael McGehee, who currently teaches in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute at CU Boulder.
The main benefit of perovskite cells is that they can potentially end up converting 50% of available energy into usable electricity, which is a massive step forward with all things having been considered and taken into account. According to McGehee, the renewable energy market will need to grow by at least fivefold and potentially even tenfold in order to meet increasing demand, and the doubling of efficiency brought about by perovskite cells will be a massive help in that regard.
One potential obstacle of perovskite cells is the difficulty of coating it onto glass panels that act as building blocks for the solar system. The use of nitrogen gas in this process reduces the efficiency, so this will be something that will have to be rectified if perovskite can replace silicon as the main source of solar energy. It will be interesting to see where things go from here on out, since this material will have to be optimized in the near future.
Read next: Powering AI May Force Tech to Burn More Fossil Fuels
