Three Stanford Engineers Invent Transparent Coating to Improve Solar Cells

The coating will help keep away the heat generated by a solar cell under direct sunlight and cool it in a way that it allows it to convert more photons into electricity.

The researchers include Shanhui Fan, a professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, research associate Aaswath P. Raman and doctoral candidate Linxiao Zhu. This newly-developed patterned silica material could finally help solve the problem when laid atop a solar cell. This material is transparent to the visible sunlight that solar cells use, but captures and radiates heat, or thermal radiation from infrared rays.

Solar panels must face the sun directly to function optimally, but at the cost of heating up, which causes it to loose efficiency. The overlay permits visible light to reach the solar cells while cooling the underlying absorber by as much as 23 degrees Fahrenheit, the statement said. Discovery of the group has been tested on a Stanford rooftop.

Solar panel efficiency can now be a new trend in the competitive development of renewable sources, according to the reports three engineers including one engineer of Indian origin have discovered Novel Coating cools down the solar panel in order to increase the efficiency.

The university’s website notes that the coating would work best in a dry, clear environment-but that’s also preferred for large solar sites, so it works out. Excessive heat can pose problems because, while the cells need sunlight to harvest energy, they also lose efficiency as they heat up.

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 nanometre-scale patterns. I’m optimistic. Individuals emit heat in this form from the top their heads into space.

The technology has significant potential for any outdoor device or system that demands cooling but requires the preservation of the visible spectrum of sunlight for either practical or aesthetic reasons.

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