Researchers Treat Solar Panels, Attaining 'Near Perfect' Sunlight Absorption

December 4, 2008 8:54 a.m. EST

Troy, NY (AHN) - Researchers from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found a new method for overcoming two of the major hurdles facing solar energy collection, moving the industry towards high-efficiency, cost-effective solar power.

They've developed a new antireflective coating that increases the amount of sunlight captured by panels while also allowing those panels to draw from the entire solar spectrum from almost any angle, according to a statement from Rensselaer.

Previously, silicon solar cells absorbed only about 67.4 percent of the sunlight shone on it-meaning almost one third of sunlight was reflected away, becoming unusable. After the same silicone surface was treated with the researchers' nanoengineered reflective coating, about 96.21 percent of sunlight shone on the panel was absorbed.

"To get maximum efficiency when converting solar power into electricity, you want a solar panel that can absorb nearly every single photon of light, regardless of the sun's position in the sky," Shawn-Yu Lin, professor of physics at Rensselaer and a member of the university's Future Chips Constellation, who led the research project, said in the statement. "Our new antireflective coating makes this possible."

The study was funded by by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Basic Energy Sciences, as well as the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and it's results were published in the journal Optic Letters earlier this month.