Current solar panel technology can trap around 15% of the solar energy that hits its surface. This means that up to 85% of that energy is wasted. Until recently, it was generally too expensive for families to buy more efficient solar panels. The more efficient panels were also highly specialized and not often sold for residential use.
It was recently discovered that by using a tiny amount of solar cells on a panel and focusing them on the sunlight will enhance the efficiency by as much as 15%. Using satellites in orbit, scientists were able to test the new strategy. On top of the solar cells, the scientists placed honeycomb-shaped lenses to bend light into a narrow beam.The cells moved along with the sun to keep the sunlight focused on the cells as well. The test achieved as much as 37% efficiency, a jump of 22% over traditional solar panels.
While the new strategy will be difficult to implement and ads a layer of complexity to traditional solar panels, it will be a great way to harness more solar energy. Other tests on the ground were also very successful, making scientists very optimistic for the new strategy to become more mainstream. They are expected to hit the market in 2022.
Source :
https://insolight.ch/
This is so interesting! I had no idea how much energy was lost with the way solar panels currently are. I think it would be amazing to see this better solution implemented in a large way. I think that cost will definitely be a big factor. They will need to find a way to lower the cost in order to make this accessible to an every day person. Solar panels as is are already too expensive for most families, so this would be even further out of reach. Thanks for sharing!
Hopefully, with this new innovation emerging, it can bring down prices of already existing solar panels to make them more accessible to most of the population. I did a little bit a research on this topic and in the mid 1950’s, a solar panel roughly the size of a person would only be able to power about 1/3 of a 60 watt light bulb. In 2018, the same size panel can generate about 5 light bulbs worth of power. In a big picture of things, I do not think it is worth the price for such a low power output. It would be nice to see how things may change in 2022.