Sunday, July 22, 2012

Transparent thin film solar cells

UCLA researchers have developed at thin film solar cell that can be attached to windows.  Because the cells capture the energy from the near infrared light spectrum they allow 70% of the light to pass through glass.  The efficiency of the cells is currently 4%. 

The polymer solar cells are light weight, flexible and cheap to manufacture.  They will be useful for  solar windows or sun collecting smart phones.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/22/ucla-creates-transparent-solar-cell/
The UCLA research is very similar to a paper in the Journal of Advanced Energy Materials recently published by British researches investigating 60 nanometer thick solar collecting film. 

A local company 3M also has a line of products designed to assist in the collection of solar energy.

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