Thin Film Solar Panels Are Here
It is not the world record for ALL solar cells, but for solar cells using certain cheap and highly available materials, IBM has just set a new world record.
The world record is for solar cells composed of copper, tin, zinc, sulfur, selenium, or similar materials. The new record is about 40% better than the previous best for solar cells using such materials. The efficiency rate of IBM’s new technology is 9.6%. The previous best was 6.7%.
University of British Columbia Professor Scott Dunbar of the school’s Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering has pioneered a way to genetically engineer viruses to bind with minerals.
Lithium ion batteries have been getting lots of attention recently, but zinc-air batteries have been largely ignored–until now. A California start-up called Power Air plans on introducing a PDA-sized zinc fuel cell box that can be used to charge electronics.