IBM develops inexpensive high-efficiency photovoltaic cells
One of the main drawbacks of photovoltaic technology today is the fact that producing and buying these cells is expensive, a cost which however breaks even after a particular amount of time. However, not a lot of us can really afford these expensive home-based electricity generators and use grid connections instead. Recently, IBM’s Material Science team, with help from Solar Frontier, Tokyo Ohka Kogyo and Del Solar has come up with an efficient and comparatively inexpensive-to-produce PV cell that could pretty much pave the way to a greener tomorrow. Using readily available materials including copper, zinc, and tin, the team managed to create a solar semiconductor with 11.1% conversion efficiency! A development like this could pretty much provide the solar-energy industry with an unbeatable impetus and push us further towards an eco-friendly future.