A new study indicates that utilizing a coating thinner than a strand of hair by over 100 times can turn your backpack, mobile phone, or car roof into miniature solar power stations, thus increasing the efficiency of solar energy and reducing the need for vast solar power plants that occupy land area.
According to a report by CNN, scientists from the Physics Department of the University of Oxford have developed an ultra-thin and flexible light-absorbing material that can be almost attached to the surface of any building or object, with the energy generated possibly being almost twice that of current solar panels.
The solar energy coating employed in this new technology is made of a material called perovskites, which absorbs solar energy more efficiently compared to the widely used silicon-based solar panels. The coating produced by the scientists at the University of Oxford can capture about 27% of solar energy. In contrast, solar panels using silicon cells today typically can only convert up to 22% of sunlight into electricity.
The emergence of this technology comes at a crucial moment as the world speeds up the transition to clean energy sources, with the booming development of solar power generation.
According to data from Wood Mackenzie, a company specializing in clean energy transition data and analysis, global solar panel installations have surged, increasing by 80% in 2023 compared to 2022. According to Ember’s “Global Electricity Review 2024,” solar energy has been the fastest-growing source of electricity for the 19th consecutive year by 2023.
However, ground-based solar power plants consume a significant amount of land. Oxford University researchers state that their technology can address this issue while also reducing energy costs.
The researchers believe that over time, the efficiency of perovskites will exceed 45%, noting that they have already achieved an increase in output from 6% to 27% in just five years of experiments.
The thickness of this coating is only slightly over one micron, making it 150 times thinner than the silicon wafers used in current solar panels. It can be applied to all kinds of surfaces, including plastic and paper, using tools like inkjet printers.
Henry Snaith, the lead researcher of the Oxford University team, stated that their work holds significant commercial potential. Snaith is also the head of Oxford Photovoltaics, a company spun off from the Oxford University Physics Department, which recently commenced large-scale production of perovskite solar panels at a factory in Germany.