ADVANCED SOLAR POWER

While solar power is becoming increasingly widespread, one problem is that solar cells are not that efficient, being able to convert only around 32 per cent of incoming sunlight into electricity. However, that could all change with hot solar cells, which could double the efficiency.

The idea is not just to absorb light but to absorb heat too. So-called thermophotovoltaics have been around for a while, but in 2016 a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) worked out how to boost their efficiency. They made the spectrum of the incoming light more useful for the solar cell, first by converting it into heat and then back into light. This is the first design to absorb more energy than a standard solar cell. The technology may still be a decade away, but the potential benefits are enormous.

“Hot solar cells don’t just absorb light, they absorb heat too”