Special coating will increase the efficiency of solar panels
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Engineers of the Research Institute. Stanford created a unique coating of silicon, which will help increase the efficiency of solar panels and keep the temperature.
The coating is capable of collecting heat, which is then radiated into space, a feature of the technology is that, then incoming photons are not blocked.
Development can be useful for cooling any devices that are in the open air.
Solar panels can be heated up to 800 ° C in the evening (especially in countries with warm climate), and excessive heat becomes a peculiar problem: the cells for energy collection need sunlight, but with increasing temperature, efficiency begins to decrease. For example, traditional silicon cells lose about 20% of their efficiency even at a temperature of 100 ° C.
In computers, laptops, etc. The problem of overheating is solved with the help of fans and radiators, but for specialists located in the open air, such as solar panels, experts decided to use the surrounding space as heat absorption.
Professor Shanghai Feng with a team of scientists developed a special silicon coating that is capable of transferring heat to space. The principle of operation is based on the collection of heat, which is then radiated in the form of electromagnetic infrared waves, which easily pass through the atmosphere. The coating is colorless, so the light-absorbing capacity of the cells does not decrease at all.
Prof. Fan's team tested the new technology with the help of thermal solar collectors (the scientists took three devices, two of which were heat sinks with silicon dioxide and photonic crystals). As the experiment showed, the heat removal mechanisms effectively coped with the removal of heat.
Visible light easily passes through the coating to solar panels, while lowering the temperature of the main element to 130 ° C. Scientists note that despite the fact that the efficiency increases by no more than 1%, this is quite enough for a solar cell cell.
In addition, experts offer a few more improvements that will not only help cool the devices, but also increase efficiency.
Engineers note that solar panels with a new coating are better used in a clean and dry environment. Also, experiments with collectors were conducted in the winter, when it is recommended to tilt them by 600 to the south in order to reduce the area of the projection to the sky and increase the absorbing capacity, and this, in turn, leads to a decrease in cooling capacity.
In addition, according to experts, traditional cooling elements can also be added to the flint coating.
Shanghai Feng with his colleagues is confident that the new technology will find it will be possible to apply in any outdoor device that needs cooling, for example, a colorless coating can be used to cool cars and save fuel, without detriment to the aesthetic side.
