Researchers from Stanford University have been testing ways to boost the power of a solar cell. They put a new photovoltaic material on top of the traditional solar cell and boosted the power by 50%, proving their theory correct. The material is called a perovskite. They have a crystalline structure made out of easy to find, and cheap materials, such as ammonia, iodine, and lead. These researches have been demonstrating the pervoskite’s photovoltaic potential since 2009, but now they are also demonstrating the efficiency of the cells, causing them to be more recognized and have a greater potential of being used. They can pick up parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that silicon cells cannot. They do not plan to replace silicon with the pervoskite material, but to use them together, making the solar cells even more efficient. However, the pervoskite is not transparent, so they think they will run silicon wires through it that also pick up the energy. Adding the new material to the cells changes the efficiently percent from 11.4% to 17%. Much research still has to be done to make sure these cells are completely environmental safe and last longer than they currently do, but scientists predict they will convert 30% of the sun’s energy into electricity when completed.
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