Graphene Vs Silicon Solar Panels

Although there is a slight reduction in power conversion efficiencies 16 4 with the graphene armor versus 17 5 without this is marginal next to the advantages the coating brings.

Graphene vs silicon solar panels.

In addition graphene has a low. Nanotech says that their graphene panel reaches a 92 efficiency compared to around 20 for large commercial silicon based pv panels and the cost per watt of their panel will be 0 55 cents compared to a us average of 3 26 for silicon pv panels. For those of you new to the topic graphene is a two dimensional material with unique and powerful electronic properties. Photovoltaic solar cells made of organic compounds would offer a variety of advantages over today s inorganic silicon solar cells.

Solar cells made with graphene could offer 60 solar cell efficiency. The ability to use graphene instead is making possible truly flexible low cost transparent solar cells that can turn virtually any surface into a source of electric power. The traditional silicon solar cells are more efficient as 14 watts of power will be generated from 1000 watts of sunlight where as only 1 3 watts of power can be generated from a graphene opv cell. Transparent graphene electrodes could replace indium tin oxide in solar cells in the future making them cheaper and more efficient.

Studies have shown that doped graphene can change one absorbed photon of a few electrons which in practice means an increase in efficiency of solar panels. But these opv cells more than compensate by having more advantages like physical flexibility and costing less. For that reason scientists have spent. Graphene based tandem solar cells almost double the efficiency of pure silicon.

Though the application of graphene in solar cells is only theoretical the potential outlined in the study is remarkable. Scientists have developed a new process to produce the required carbon films of the required thickness and quality.