Fish oil used to make solar panels more efficient

 TCD:

While solar panels rely on sunlight to produce electricity, heat actually reduces the efficiency of solar cells. A team of researchers in Korea has discovered a surprising workaround: fish oil.

To prevent solar cells from overheating, researchers have developed decoupled photovoltaic thermal systems, which use a liquid to filter out excess heat and light. By drawing away ultraviolet rays that would overheat the solar cells, the liquid filter keeps solar cells cool while storing the heat away for later use.

Decoupled photovoltaic thermal systems have traditionally used water or nanoparticle solutions as their liquid filters. The trouble is that water and nanoparticle solutions aren’t very good at filtering out UV rays.

“De-coupled photovoltaic-thermal systems utilize liquid filters to absorb non-effective wavelengths, such as ultraviolet, visible light, and near-infrared. However, water, a popular filter, cannot effectively absorb ultraviolet rays, which limits system performance,” a research team at the Korea Maritime & Ocean University (KMOU) explained to CleanTechnica.

The team at KMOU found that fish oil excelled at filtering out excess light. While most water-based decoupled systems operate at 79.3% efficiency, the KMOU team’s fish oil-based system achieved 84.4% efficiency. For comparison, the team measured standalone solar cells as operating at 18% efficiency and standalone solar thermal systems at 70.9% efficiency.

“The [fish oil] emulsion filter effectively absorbs ultraviolet, visible light, and near-infrared wavelengths, which do not contribute to electricity generation in PV modules, and converts them into thermal energy,” the team’s report read.
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It is my impression that solar energy has not been particularly efficient in the past.  Perhaps this can increase the efficiency and make them more viable. 

See, also:

Scientists just made a massive breakthrough on an alternative to lithium-ion batteries: ‘These batteries are essential’

Researchers have recently discovered a way to make an efficient battery out of zinc — an inexpensive, commonly found metal — instead of the rare metals used in lithium batteries.

Most rechargeable batteries today are lithium-ion batteries, which include other metals like cobalt and nickel, Tech Xplore reports. As electric vehicles (EVs) and large-scale energy storage get more common, we’ll need more and more of those metals — but because they’re uncommon, the costs are often massive.

Many researchers are working on cheaper battery options to reduce or replace these metals. One Chinese company has created a car powered by a sodium battery, and a University of Maryland researcher has invented a partly biodegradable battery made of zinc and crab shells. Researchers have even found not one but two ways to store energy in ordinary sand.
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