Solar Energy ArticlesSolar Panel Efficiency In order to use the solar panels in our homes to power our energy needs, we need to find out how efficient they are. Average solar panels can offer only up to 20% efficiency, which means that out of all the sunlight the panel absorbs, just twenty percent of it is utilized. However there are quite a few solar panel manufacturers that produce solar panels which can give up to 40% efficiency. But for the solar panels made out of the current silicon material forty percent is the maximum efficiency which even the highest quality solar panels can give. This is why the idea of creating energy from the sunlight with the help of solar panels still not becomes a reality. The best way to use the sunlight for our house needs is to design the house such that maximum light can enter the house, or design reflectors that can reflect the sunlight into the house so that the rooms remain lightened up. This design itself can draw about eighty percent of light into useful energy. This type of design is one of the most effective and the simplest ways to utilize the sunlight. We can then use the solar panels to meet the rest of our energy requirements. Scientists believe that the forty percent is the maximum that can be achieved out of solar panels made out of silicon. The solar panel manufacturers are therefore trying to figure out a way to make the solar panels cheaper rather than making them more efficient. However a new technology has achieved a breakthrough which will increase the solar panel efficiency up to eighty percent. This technology is invented by Steve Norad who has come up with an incredible way to create a solar panel which can absorb almost eighty percent. However a major challenge that arises is trying to use the energy captured through the solar panel and use in the form of electricity, for our daily usage. The scientists have already started to work on finding a way to capture those electrons that flow out of the antennas thereby drawing the electricity from the panel. This new panel is a thin foil which can be foldable and covered with a thin layer of nano antennas which absorb infrared radiation too. So if we need to draw electricity from these antennas, it is possible to attach tiny capacitors on the antennas. Another approach in capturing the sunlight radiation is that using an AC/DC converter to capture electrons and use it to generate electricity. If this is possible these solar panels could offer as much as eighty percent efficiency. The idea behind this new solar panel is that the sunlight is available in abundance and the sunlight consists of infrared radiation which is available even at night. We are able to capture infrared radiation in the night with the help of our TV antennas of high wavelengths. In the same way we can also capture the IR radiation of small wavelengths by using small antennas except that the wavelength being very small the antenna length should also be small. Also there have been technology developments which allow the traditional standard solar cells to give up to forty percent efficiency. However there have been many doubts that have arisen in the solar energy who have been questioning the effectiveness and the practicality of the technology. This is because if the panel is able to absorb IR at night, it is probably absorbing the radiation from the earth’s thermal radiation and not the solar energy. These questions have dragged this concept into a debate of whether eighty percent efficiency can really be achieved or not. Related articles
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