As solar technology is in wider use today but it is still less cost-effective. Scientists are near to develop next generation solar panels which would be cheap at the same time.

Harry Atwater, while standing in the lab of Caltech, shows a plastic panel with thickness less than one millimeter. The room was illuminated but the surface of panel still appears to be jet black. It absorbs all the light striking on its surface.

This high-tech material absorbs light 10 times efficiently as compared to the in-use silicon cells which are installed on the roofs of houses to gather sun energy.

This is a part of an effort Atwater’s team at Caltech is doing to develop the next generation of solar cells. They aim to create cheap, long-lasting and flexible solar cells affordable for homeowners and businesses.

Solar cells or solar photovoltaic devices are in use since the 1950s. But at that time, they cost very high.

As the technology improved the prices also came down. Moreover, countries like Japan and Germany offered subsidies to decrease costs even more.

In 2008, U.S. government also followed that approach and issued cash grants to customers purchasing solar panels and increased tax credits for companies manufacturing renewable technologies.

No doubt homes and businesses (Google, Wal-Mart and eBay) has adopted this as a primary source of energy, still solar cells are not much cost-effective as other forms of energy.

The prominent type is a thin wafer produced from silicon, the second element present in great quantity in the Earth’s crust. Silicon-based solar cells are proven to be long-lasting, durable and efficient at producing electric energy from sun rays.

Silicon itself is not a costly material but for using it in solar cells, it has to be passed through an expensive process.

Second type of solar cells is made from chemical copper indium gallium diselenide or cadmium telluride. It is less abundantly available on earth than silicon. These materials are inexpensive than silicon but also half in efficiency.

Gallium arsenide is used in a third type of solar cells. It has the characteristic of absorbing good deal of sun light. The material is good in its characteristics as it is insensitive to heat, flexible and resistant to radiation damage but also greatly expensive.

Atwater’s Caltech team is striving to produce a material that is abundant in nature making it cheap and also able to absorb maximum of light.

Now they come up with a new material; a carpet of thin silicon wires embedded in plastic.

This substance absorbs 10 times the amount of energy of conventional silicon cells. It is also more in flexibility when compared to traditional silicon wafer. This enables panels to coat non-smooth surfaces and roofing materials in easy way.

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