| Advertisement |
SYDNEY, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- Researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia have set a world record for solar efficiency by converting over 40 percent of the sunlight that hit their solar panel system into electricity. They conducted tests outdoors in Sydney, and their results were confirmed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) facility in the United States.
Advertisement
"This is the highest efficiency ever reported for sunlight conversion into electricity," UNSW Scientia Professor and Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) Professor Martin Green said.
They used readily available commercial solar cells and used filters that reflect certain wavelengths of light and transmit others, which makes it so more sunlight that would usually be wasted is now converted into energy.
An Australian company named RayGen Resources is currently developing towers that can take advantage of this achievement.
"The new results are based on the use of focused sunlight, and are particularly relevant to photovoltaic power towers being developed in Australia," Professor Green said.
A paper explaining the research will soon be published in the journal Progress in Photovoltaics.
