/PRNewswire/ As the largest "organ" of the human body, the skin is a major interface in our interactions with the world around us. Skin contains specialized.
The thin, all-transparent solar panels can work as invisible generators for a number of electronic devices.
Depiction of the transparent solar cell (left), and the cell in action (right). Image credits: Nguyen et al (2020) / Journal of Power Sources.
Solar photovoltaics are the fastest-growing electricity source in the world, producing 2% of the world’s energy, up from a mere afterthought just a few years ago. Nowadays, most commercial solar panels have an efficiency between 15 and 20%, although outliers do exist on both sides of this range.
But in most cases, you can’t really use solar panels for electronics because of a very simple reason: they’re not transparent.
On the road to invisible solar panels.
Jan 7th, 2021
Incheon National University
The solar cell created by the team is transparent, allowing its use in a wide range of applications.
Joondong Kim/Incheon National University
Five years after the Paris climate agreement, all eyes are on the world s progress on the road to a carbon-free future. A crucial part of this goal involves the energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources, such as sun, water, wind and wave energy. Among those, solar energy has always held the highest hope in the scientific community, as the most reliable and abundant energy source on Earth. In recent decades, solar cells have become cheaper, more efficient, and environment friendly. However, current solar cells tend to be opaque, which prevents their wider use and integration into everyday materials, constrained to being lined up on roofs and in remote solar farms.
5 January 2021, 7:41 pm EST By
Years after the Paris Climate agreement, countries have continued to innovate on the quest to make a smooth exit from non-renewable energy and to switch to renewable energy sources for electricity.
A new study in Journal of Power Sources from Incheon National University, Korea demonstrates how they have made the first fully transparent solar cell. Led by Professor Joondong Kim the new study boasts of their newly discovered innovative technique, specifically in the cell s heterojunction- the making of crystaline, thin films that is responsible for absorbing the light. This solar panel then converts the absorbed light into electricity. According to the study, it was through the combination of nickel oxide semiconductors and titanium dioxide that an effective and fully transparent solar cell has been made.