Solar panel nanocoating increases efficiency by 30 percent.
Typical silicon solar panels you see on the market today soak up two thirds of the sunlight that hits the solar panel. Researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute developed a coating that can help solar panels soak up more then 96% of the sunlight that hits the panel. Traditionally solar panels perform the best when the sunlight is directly shining on them, although with the development of the coating, it allows a solar panel to collect energy from all angels, thus improving the efficiency significantly.
The nanocoating pictured above overcomes two major obstacles blocking the progress and wider use of solar power. One, the coating increases the amount of sunlight captured by solar panels and two, allows those panel with the special coating to absorb the entire spectrum of sunlight from any angle, regardless of the sun’s position. The key aspect of the nanocoating is that it creates an anti reflective effective that helps solar panels soak up more sun.
The amazing aspect of this research is that since the nanocoating can help solar panels collect energy from any angles, this breakthrough has the potential to eliminate solar trackers which main purpose is to keep the solar panel pitch in line with the path of the sun. The nanocoating is still in the research & development stage, at this time there is no road maps for commercial development of this technology, so don’t expect this new coating on the solar panels on the market soon. Although we are glad to see these types of game changing technologies being funded and tested to hit the market in the near future.
