UT team to try to make solar panels more efficient

Fuel Fix:
A team of chemists led by the University of Texas at Austin received nearly $1.3 million in funding to develop a new coating for silicon-based solar cells that could boost efficiency as much as 20 percent and make solar power generation cheaper.

Efficiency is a problem in silicon-based solar cells which are used in roof top solar panels and large scale solar farms because the cells convert less than 30 percent of the energy from sunlight into electricity.

The goal of the project is to claw back some of the energy loss by chemically attaching organic dyes to the surface of the silicon cell that reduce heat losses and convert more of that energy into electricity, said Sean Roberts, the project's principal investigator and an assistant professor of chemistry at UT Austin.
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Alternative energy, in general, is relatively inefficient.  Even if they are able to convert more of the sun's energy the solar panels will still have limited ability to create energy because of the nature of solar energy.  Solar energy also is less reliable in extreme weather.

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