One of the reasons solar cells are not common is that they are expensive and large scale production of electricity using these cells is not affordable. Any improvement in the technology is surely a welcoming news.
A team of Korean researchers has found a way to reduce the cost of generating a single watt of energy from photovoltaic cells to a few cents from the initial couple of bugs. The system is cheap but is not as energy efficient as required. Reason being the cells convert just 6.5% energy into electricity. This is enough to keep your digital watch ticking but cannot be used to lighten your house.
The only way to reduce the cost of the cells is to use lesser amount of semiconductor materials into the cells, a process known as exfoliation. A substrate is injected with helium and is heated until the expanding gas removes a thin layer less than a micron from the substrate. This skinnier substrate is bonded to cheap silicon to produce a wafer-bonded cell that’s lighter and cheaper at the same time. The best feature is that the cells are so thin that they can be used in layers. The technology is helpful but still is not energy efficient, may be one day we get enough energy to run an AC from these cells…!
Via: Sci-Fi
