Originally published December 18 2005
Breakthrough in organic solar cell studies will aid the cause of alternative energy
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A team of scientists from New Mexico State University and Wake Forest University have created organic solar cells with a solar energy efficiency level of 5.2 percent, the highest that has been attained so far.
While traditional solar panels are made of silicon, which is expensive, brittle and shatters like glass, organic solar cells being developed by this team are made of plastic that is relatively inexpensive, flexible, can be wrapped around structures or even applied like paint, said physicist Seamus Curran, head of the nanotechnology laboratory at NMSU.
Nanotechnology, or molecular manufacturing, refers to the ability to build things one atom at a time.
The relatively low energy efficiency levels produced by organic solar cells have been a drawback.
To be effective producers of energy, they must be able to convert 10 percent of the energy in sunlight to electricity.
Typical silicon panels are about 12 percent energy conversion efficient.
That level of energy conversion has been a difficult reach for researchers on organic solar technology, with many of them hitting about 3 to 4 percent.
But the NMSU/Wake Forest team has achieved a solar energy efficiency level of 5.2 percent.
The announcement was made at the Santa Fe Workshop on Nanoengineered Materials and Macro-Molecular Technologies, which opened Sunday and continues through Friday.
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