Could a new technology spell the end for solar farms?

Scientists at Oxford University have achieved 27% energy efficiency from an extraordinarily thin solar power-generating material, matching the returns from traditional silicon photovoltaics panels.

At just over one micron thick, it is almost 150 times thinner than a silicon wafer and can be applied as a coating to a huge variety of surfaces. The team behind it believe this could spell the end of solar farms as we know them today.

The researchers – who are among 40 scientists working on photovoltaics at Oxford University Physics Department – have been developing the technology for some time and, while it clearly has huge application advantages over the solar panels commonly in use today, until now, it was not as efficient.

Dr Shuaifeng Hu, Post Doctoral Fellow at Oxford University Physics said: ‘During just five years experimenting with our stacking or multi-junction approach we have raised power conversion efficiency from around 6% to over 27%, close to the limits of what single-layer photovoltaics can achieve today. We believe that, over time, this approach could enable the photovoltaic devices to achieve far greater efficiencies, exceeding 45%.’

Dr Junke Wang, Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions Postdoc Fellow at Oxford University Physics said: ‘By using new materials which can be applied as a coating, we’ve shown we can replicate and out-perform silicon whilst also gaining flexibility. This is important because it promises more solar power without the need for so many silicon-based panels or specially-built solar farms.’

‘We can envisage perovskite coatings being applied to broader types of surface to generate cheap solar power, such as the roof of cars and buildings and even the backs of mobile phones. If more solar energy can be generated in this way, we can foresee less need in the longer term to use silicon panels or build more and more solar farms.’

Henry Snaith, Professor of Renewable Energy, Oxford University Physics Department who leads the team said: ‘The latest innovations in solar materials and techniques demonstrated in our labs could become a platform for a new industry, manufacturing materials to generate solar energy more sustainably and cheaply by using existing buildings, vehicles, and objects.’