Researchers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena say they have discovered a way to make solar cells from tiny nanowires, a breakthrough that could potentially cut solar energy costs significantly.
Building solar cells with nanowires could reduce the amount of material needed and cut costs
The scientists say their work illustrates how solar cells can be made with substantially less material and yet with a similar ability to absorb sunlight. Nanowire cells – not yet constructed from the group’s laboratory experiments – could offer a cheap alternative to today’s still relatively expensive wafer-based polysilicon cells.
The work was reported this week in the scientific journal Nature Materials. It is the culmination of many years of work with the micro-sized silicon wires.
The researchers claim traditional wafer-based cells have 100 times more material then the cells they expected to construct with the silicon nanowires.
The new cells also might be able to increase the efficiency at which they capture light by 20 times through use aluminum oxide particles to reflect passing light onto the wires.
The work suggests that present method of making cells on flat silicon wafers may not be the only or the best method for manufacturing photovoltaic panels. But now comes the hard part. The scientists must take their work out of the lab and construct cells that can work under real-world conditions.
Caltech first mentioned the research work when it was at a very early stage in 2007. It may take a number of additional years to bring it to fruition.
Posted by Mark Boslet 
