This Solar Cell Is Currently The Most Efficient of All

We’re very much aware that we’re quickly depleting our non-renewable sources of energy, which is why we try to harness renewable sources of energy, like sunlight. Over the years, solar cells have become much more efficient, capable of storing energy from the sun at a much faster rate. But there’s always room for improvement when it comes to technology, and so solar cells continue to improve in efficiency.

Now, three records have been broken by two different devices, including one that pushes the highest overall solar conversion efficiency towards the 50-percent mark.

The top honor was claimed by researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), who have developed a new solar cell with an efficiency of 47.1 percent. That makes it the most efficient solar cell of any kind in the world – for now, at least. These records have a tendency to be broken pretty regularly.

The device is what’s known as a six-junction III-V solar cell, meaning it’s made up of six different types of photoactive layer. Each of these is comprised of various III-V materials, named after their positions on the periodic table, which collect energy from different parts of the light spectrum. In total there are around 140 layers, packed into a solar cell that’s thinner than a human hair.