In what could be considered a breakthrough, researchers from the US Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have found materials that can greatly boost the efficiency of solar cells.

NREL researchers reported the first solar cell that produces a photocurrent with an external quantum efficiency greater than 100 percent when photoexcited with photons from the high energy region of the solar spectrum.

“The newly reported work marks a promising step toward developing Next Generation Solar Cells for both solar electricity and solar fuels that will be competitive with, or perhaps less costly than, energy from fossil or nuclear fuels,” they said.

Source: gmanetwork.com