Two new solar panel breakthroughs, which innovatively draw on harvesting reflected light and using raindrops to generate electricity, could help improve energy efficiency for homes and businesses.
A double-sided panel developed by scientists at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory harvests reflected sunlight, producing higher-energy yields more efficiently. On the front the cell harvests direct sunlight in the same way as a normal solar panel, but the reverse is also able to collect reflected sunlight, almost doubling its capacity.
“This perovskite cell can operate very effectively from either side,” explained NREL Chemistry and Nanoscience Center senior scientist Kai Zhu.
At present solar cell technologies which use silicon PV have an efficiency rate of just over 25%, but the the new panel has an efficiency rate of around 91 to 93%, which means it can offer up to 20% more power when in direct sunlight.
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Researchers said that manufacturing this technology would cost more, but that would likely be a solid long-term financial investment because of its efficiency at generating power.
The second breakthrough has seen researchers based at Tsinghua University in China develop a method for harvesting energy from rain drops using a device called a triboelectric nanogenerator.
The nanogenerator, which creates electrification from liquid-solid contact, is normally used to harvest energy from waves, although previous limitations have made the devices unable to work at significant scale.
Now, the scientists say they have been able to overcome the difficulties using solar panel bridge arrays.
Research lead professor Zong Li told The Independent: “Referring to the design of solar panels in which multiple solar generation units are connected in parallel to supply the load, we are proposing a simple and effective method for raindrop harvesting.”
“The peak power output of the bridge array generators is nearly five times higher than that of the conventional large-area raindrop energy harvesting. The results of this study will provide a feasible scheme for large area raindrop energy harvesting.”
Both developments come as business leaders in the UK have raised the alarm about the need to invest more in developing renewables and developing a workforce with green skills including solar panel installation, amid fears the country might fall behind the US and China in the race to lead in the sector.
