It goes without saying that we are all moving towards a green environment these days, so it makes perfect sense to take advantage of renewable energy as far as possible. Existing solar panel technology might be decent, but not good enough when it comes to converting sunlight into plenty of useable current, as the efficiency value of 20% thereabouts is simply not good enough to be used for more intensive purposes. Of course, there are other issues like up to 10% of each solar panel’s active collection areas remain obscured from the sun by electrical leads that are known as “contact fingers.” Researchers from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) claim to have solved this issue, by wrapping these finger contacts in tiny, invisibility cloaks.
We do know that invisibility cloaks would come in pretty handy, especially on the battlefield, but to boost up the efficiency level of a solar panel? Sounds pretty future forward looking to us. Similar to other invisibility cloaks, this system will ensure that light is wrapped around the object, making the fingers visible to the human eye, but then the light that ends up at the top of the contacts will be redirected to the solar panel that is located below through the laws of physics. It seems that this unique invisible cloak of sorts will help increase the solar panel efficiencies by approximately 10%. [Press Release]
Filed in . Read more about Science and Solar. Source: engadget