GOOD NEWS: Swiss scientists have developed transparent solar panels that set a new record in energy efficiency. The accomplishment marks a key step in the development of windows that can also serve as viable sources of solar energy.
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- The transparent solar panels, known as dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs), use photosensitized dye attached to a semiconductor to convert light into energy.
- Earlier forms of the technology were only capable of generating power from direct sunlight.
- Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) developed transparent panels that absorb light across the entire visible light spectrum.
- “Our findings pave the way for facile access to high-performance DSCs and offer promising prospects for applications as power supply and battery replacement for low-power electronic devices that use ambient light as their energy source,” wrote the scientists in a study published in the journal Nature.
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