Photovoltaic solar cells are available in two types — crystalline silicon cells, which are more efficient but more expensive, and amorphous silicon cells, which are less efficient but cheaper and thinner and therefore more adaptable. New research from the Technical University of Delft, Netherlands, has found that using hydrogen in the production of amorphous silicon, or “thin film,” cells can increase their efficiency from the usual 7 percent to roughly 9 percent.
I believe if we simply continue to focus our efforts and define our climate change goals, that these kinds of easy efficiency upgrades will continue to appear. It seem like everyday I’m reading about how these types of solar upgrades are happening. I’ll post a link to a great a video I found the other day the shows a technology that conquers the three biggest problems of solar power. This technology is flexible, cheap and 10,000 times more efficient.
http://www.ndep.us/Its-a-Small-World
[...] currently have two types of solar energy: energy generated from light, using silicon-based photovoltaic cells, and energy generated from heat, using solar concentrators and heat-conversion systems. What if we [...]
[...] take advantage of Dubai’s immense solar resources. The project is composed of a new type of thin-film dye-sensitized solar cells with suspended walls that curl and undulate across the desert landscape, [...]