Novel coating that cools solar cells to boost efficiency

It works by capturing intense heat or thermal radiations from infrared rays and emitting them into atmosphere.

Solar cells convert photons into electricity to produce the energy, Novel coating cools down the cells while performing this task, which results in better efficiency of the Solar Panel.

Scientists have created a transparent coating that can cool down solar cells and allow them to convert more photons into electricity.

The discovery will address the issue of overheating of solar cells, a problem that has been troubling the solar power industry for a long time. All you need is to lay it on the top of a traditional solar cell. The tests showed that the coating allowed only visible light to pass through to the solar cell, filtering out the thermal radiation, keeping the temperature as low as 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to Fan, “Solar arrays must face the sun to function, even though that heat is detrimental to efficiency”. They tested their latest device on a Stanford rooftop and found that the overlay allowed light to pass through to the cells, while cooling the underlying absorber by 5C.

In the current research, the Stanford team applied the material to enhance the performance of solar panels especially during peak sunlight.

Solar panel technology has improved by leaps and bounds, but the technology has a flaw that limits the efficiency of the system. “So you can radiate heat efficiently without affecting color”.

It’s a misconception that summer days are good for solar electricity production because of high temperatures as one of the major enemies of solar panels is heat. It has been reported that 23F of cooling would improve efficiency of a typical crystalline silicon solar cell, with an efficiency of 20%, by 1%.

They believe they can scale things up so commercial and industrial applications are feasible, perhaps using nanoprint lithography, which is a common technique for producing nanometer-scale patterns.

“That’s not necessarily the only way”, said research associate Aaswath P. Raman, a co-first-author of the paper.

A doctoral candidate Linxiao Zhu, said, “Say you have a auto that is bright red”. Therefore, any overlay would have to be transparent, or to be tuned to absorb only light beyond the visible spectrum.

“Our photonic crystal thermal overlay optimizes use of the thermal portions of the electromagnetic spectrum without affecting visible light”, said electrical engineering professor Shanhui Fan.