Eco Factor: Replacing silicon with pyrite for cheaper solar energy.
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Switzerland-based NLV solar are of the opinion that the solar panel industry needs to think of newer materials that could lower the cost of panels considerably. Replacing conventionally used silicon, with cheaper materials like pyrite would make solar panels much thinner and cheaper.
Being a commonly available material, pyrite does promise inexpensive solar panels, but the best cells can only convert about 3% of the incident light into useful electricity. Silicon solar panels on the other hand can achieve many times that efficiency.
Researchers are trying to better the performance of pyrite solar panels by using nanocrystals. Manipulating the material at atomic level and increase the wavelengths the solar cell can capture and also eliminate the trace amounts of out-of-phase pyrite.
For now the research doesn’t look promising as the two prototypes developed have an efficiency of just 1.6%, even with the addition of cadmium. However, the research team is confident that all upcoming prototypes will offer better energy conversion efficiency and won’t rely on cadmium for the same.
Via: MSNBC
