Anicet Mbida 06:52, October 06, 2022

Anicet Mbida delivers to us every morning what is best in terms of innovation.

This Thursday, he is interested in a new record which has just been beaten in terms of the yield of photovoltaic panels.

The innovation of the day is a new record that has just been beaten in terms of the performance of photovoltaic panels.

Incredible the speed at which we can now increase the performance of solar panels.

Five years ago, yields of barely 13-14% were obtained (so only 14% of the sun's rays were converted into electricity).

Two years ago, we went up to 25%.

And today, a new record!

A team of scientists from the Netherlands has just exceeded the magic barrier of 30%.

Why magic?

Because we are very close to the maximum theoretical efficiency of a solar panel.

The interest of all these optimizations: they bring down the price of solar energy since we manage to generate more electricity on the same surface.

In ten years, costs have collapsed by 82%.

This is the largest decline among all renewables (IRENA).

But if we approach the theoretical maximum, it means that we will begin to stagnate.

That there will be less progress.

Not necessarily.

Because to reach this famous “theoretical maximum”, scientists have transformed visible light into electricity, but also invisible radiation, in particular ultraviolet radiation.

This is possible thanks to a very promising new material: perovskite.

With this kind of crystal, we could push the maximum theoretical efficiency to more than 60%, twice as high as the current limit.

So potentially, the cost of solar energy could still be halved in the next few years.

Alright, but it still won't work at night or on bad weather days.

Even if it breaks record after record in terms of yield, solar energy needs the sun.

It remains the most intermittent of renewable energies.

Admittedly, we are working on panels that could work at night.

Instead of converting light into electricity, the heat fluxes between night and day are transformed into electricity.

This too is very promising.

But the technique is still struggling to get out of the labs.

Ultimately, the challenge remains the same: managing to store energy simply and cheaply.

Otherwise it will be very difficult to take advantage of scientific advances.