Solar panels are fantastic pieces of technology, but we need to work out how to make them even more efficient and scientists just solved a 40-year old mystery around one of the key obstacles to increased efficiency.
A new study outlines a material defect in silicon used to produce solar cells that has previously gone undetected. It could be responsible for the 2 percent efficiency drop that solar cells can see in the first hours of use: Light Induced Degradation (LID).
Multiplied by the increasing number of panels installed at solar farms around the world, that drop equals a significant cost in gigawatts that non-renewable energy sources have to make up for.
In fact, the estimated loss in efficiency worldwide from LID is estimated to equate to more energy than can be generated by the UK’s 15 nuclear power plants.
The new discovery could help scientists make up some of that shortfall. The latest study used an electrical and optical technique called deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) to find weaknesses in the silicon.
As the electronic charge in the solar cells gets transformed from sunlight, the flow of electrons gets trapped; in turn, that reduces the level of electrical power that can be produced.
This defect lies dormant until the solar panel gets heated, the team found.
“We’ve proved the defect exists, it’s now an engineering fix that is needed,” says one of the researchers, Iain Crowe from the University of Manchester.
What’s more, heating the material in the dark, a process often used to remove traps from silicon, seems to reverse the degradation. Now that the Light Induced Degradation mystery has been solved, solar farms across the globe should benefit.