These flexible solar panels are six times more efficient than their predecessors

The solar cells were developed by researchers at the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). Unlike traditional solar panels, they can be wrapped around a coil. In the past, researchers have succeeded in producing such cells, but their efficiency, which is the amount of sunlight that can be converted into usable energy, does not exceed one to two percent.

Perovskite

CSIRO cells have an efficiency of 11 percent. This is still only half of commercial solar panels, but represents a six-fold increase over older technologies. Each CSIRO cell is 50 square centimeters in size and uses perovskite, a material that is ubiquitous on Earth and cheap.

Perovskite is better at converting energy than silicon, the material currently used in most solar panels. However, perovskite-based solar cells lose their capacity faster than conventional cells.

Scalable and cheap

Scientists acknowledge this defect in their research, which is published in a specialized journal Nature Communications Has been published. However, they are convinced that this technology can be commercialized once this problem is solved.

The production method they developed is scalable and, according to scientists, not expensive. CSIRO is now looking for industry partners to further develop the technology.

Scientists in Singapore recently developed the world's most efficient solar panels, which can achieve an efficiency of up to 27.1 percent.

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