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Published online 8 December 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2008.1281

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Efficiency records claimed for solar devices

Light concentrator promises higher power output.

Katharine Sanderson

A transparent polymer plate has set a new record for concentrating the Sun's light on to a solar cell, boosting the promise of a technology that could lead to vastly improved solar-power capabilities at much cheaper cost.

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are plates of plastic or glass that have solar cells mounted along their edges.

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  • Hello Katherine, Could you explain the following passage: "Amanda Chatten from Imperial College London has now unveiled an LSC with a power conversion efficiency of 7.1%, beating the previous official record-holder by about 0.4%."? It seems you are referring to this paper: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/321/5886/226 This paper´s abstract says "We report (...) projected power conversion efficiencies as high as 6.8%." But in the paper´s full text there is a table showing that some experimental configurations have power effeciencies of 14,5%!!! So, am I missing something or there are not a really record breaking?

    • 09 Dec, 2008
    • Posted by: Igor Zolnerkevic

  • This is based on light concentration,though there have been reports of higher efficiencies,perhaps based on both light and IR concentration--the latter would be an interesting combination if possible through device designs for that. thanks SURESHKUMAR,SCIENTIST AND ADVISER,NIIST

    • 11 Dec, 2008
    • Posted by: suresh kumar