High efficiency solar cells

Science Daily reports that a new process could double the efficiency of existing solar cell technology.

A new process that simultaneously combines the light and heat of solar radiation to generate electricity could offer more than double the efficiency of existing solar cell technology, say the Stanford engineers who discovered it and proved that it works.

Called "Photon Enhanced Thermionic Emission, or PETE, the process promises to surpass the efficiency of existing photovoltaic and thermal conversion technologies.

"This is really a conceptual breakthrough, a new energy conversion process, not just a new material or a slightly different tweak," said Nick Melosh, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering, who led the research group. "It is actually something fundamentally different about how you can harvest energy."

Read the full Science Daily story New Solar Energy Conversion Process Could Double Solar Efficiency of Solar Cells at
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/
100802101813.htm