69
submitted 8 months ago by SteveKLord@slrpnk.net to c/energy@slrpnk.net

Researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have discovered a new method to increase the efficiency of solar cells by a factor of 1,000. The team of scientists achieved this breakthrough by creating crystalline layers of barium titanate, strontium titanate, and calcium titanate, which were alternately placed on top of one another in a lattice structure.

top 14 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] UpperBroccoli 59 points 8 months ago

That article - and especially the title - seem misleading. To quote (emphasis mine):

The result surprised even the research group: compared to pure barium titanate of a similar thickness, the current flow was up to 1,000 times stronger, despite the fact that the proportion of barium titanate as the main photoelectric component was reduced by almost two thirds.

I am sure this is exciting and very important research though.

[-] transientpunk@sh.itjust.works 37 points 8 months ago

compared to pure barium titanate of a similar thickness, the current flow was up to 1,000 times stronger

This says noting of efficiency compared to standard solar panels. Seems misleading at best.

[-] vxx@lemmy.world 21 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

The press release is from 2021

https://pressemitteilungen.pr.uni-halle.de/index.php?modus=pmanzeige&pm_id=5272

Silence since then.

Link to the study:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abe4206

Edit: I skimmed through the study and their premise is to combine 3 crystals and break the linearity of the cristals to get a better response and better responsivity over the whole bandwidth of the light spectrum. It seems to be stable at a wide range of temperatures.

Issue is, they broke (or combined ?) the cristals with a microscopic needle but that isn't feasible for mass adoption, so they speculate that some rust process might be the best approach to try.

I'm no scientist and it's likely very false what I stated, but I think the premise is that we need to find ways to create panels with broken up cristals to give them more power.

[-] SteveKLord@slrpnk.net 5 points 8 months ago

Thanks for catching that. Unfortunately seems fairly common with a lot of these projects for "new" technologies ,sometimes due to funding.

[-] qprimed@lemmy.ml 18 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

"The result surprised even the research group: compared to pure barium titanate of a similar thickness, the current flow was up to 1,000 times stronger..."

so this offers the possibility of barium titanate PV cells that may be marginally more efficient and less expensive than existing silicon PV cells.

seems to be another "in a few years" tech that, while welcome, probably does not deserve the clickbait headline.

[-] NigelSimmons@startrek.website 11 points 8 months ago

"The result surprised even the research group: compared to pure barium titanate of a similar thickness, the current flow was up to 1,000 times stronger, despite the fact that the proportion of barium titanate as the main photoelectric component was reduced by almost two thirds."... So not actually 1000x better than current technology, just 1000x compared to pure barium titanite. Garbage clickbait, but "clever technique applied to ineffective solar cell technology scrapes 1% efficiency when used in UV spectrum" does not have the same appeal.

[-] kindenough@kbin.earth 5 points 8 months ago

Damn, headline got me excited for a few moments and then I get into the comment section and be feeling depressed again.

[-] expatriado@lemmy.world 8 points 8 months ago

a really good solar panel has a efficiency of 30%, idk how can you 1000x that, math doesn't add up

[-] SteveKLord@slrpnk.net 4 points 8 months ago

Thank you. This has been addressed by previous commenters.

[-] expatriado@lemmy.world 7 points 8 months ago

i see, title is clickbaity

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 6 points 8 months ago

20,000% efficient? Cool. Mr. Boltzmann and Mr. Einstein may want to have a word, though.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 points 8 months ago

I wanna ride my electric motorcycle around the country and chill out for an hour while my crazy efficient foldout panel recharges my bike.

[-] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 1 points 8 months ago

If you live somewhere reasonably sunny, you can expect about 1 kW per square meter during the sunniest part of the day. To charge something like a 15 kWh electric motorcycle battery, you'd need 15 square meters of 100% efficient panels.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I'm well aware. I was hypothesizing about these 1000x panels from the article

this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2024
69 points (100.0% liked)

Green Energy

2649 readers
9 users here now

Everything about energy production and storage.

Related communities:

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS