{"id":143551,"date":"2022-08-03T22:28:16","date_gmt":"2022-08-04T03:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/swiss-team-creates-most-efficient-silicon-based-solar-cell-ever"},"modified":"2022-08-03T22:28:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T03:28:16","slug":"swiss-team-creates-most-efficient-silicon-based-solar-cell-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2022\/08\/swiss-team-creates-most-efficient-silicon-based-solar-cell-ever","title":{"rendered":"Swiss team creates most efficient silicon-based solar cell ever"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/swiss-team-creates-most-efficient-silicon-based-solar-cell-ever2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Swiss researchers have done the (theoretically) impossible, creating not one but two <a href=\"https:\/\/www.csem.ch\/page.aspx?pid=172296\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">silicon-based solar cells<\/a> with efficiencies greater than 30% \u2014 breaking a world record and potentially illuminating the path to a future of cheaper clean energy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The status quo:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.freethink.com\/environment\/solar-cells\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Solar cells<\/a> absorb light and convert it into electricity. They\u2019re the basis of most solar power tech, and about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.energy.gov\/eere\/solar\/solar-photovoltaic-cell-basics\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">95% of them<\/a> are made from silicon because it\u2019s abundant, long-lasting, and relatively cheap.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the silicon solar cells sold today are about <a href=\"https:\/\/about.bnef.com\/blog\/solars-hot-new-thing-nears-production-qa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">22% efficient<\/a>, meaning they convert 22% of the solar energy that hits them into electricity. We don\u2019t have too much room for improvement with silicon solar cells, either, as they have a <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acsenergylett.0c01790\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">theoretical efficiency limit<\/a> of about 29%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Swiss researchers have done the (theoretically) impossible, creating not one but two silicon-based solar cells with efficiencies greater than 30% \u2014 breaking a world record and potentially illuminating the path to a future of cheaper clean energy. The status quo: Solar cells absorb light and convert it into electricity. They\u2019re the basis of most solar [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1633,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-solar-power","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}