Efficiency record broken in transparent solar cells: One day they may come to your window

Although dye sensitive solar cells (DSSC, DSC or DYSC) have been in our lives for a while, unfortunately they have not reached general use. Although they had advantages in terms of cost, they were not sufficient in terms of efficiency, which was a major shortcoming. New research now makes dye-sensitive solar cells more efficient.

Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland announced that they have developed a new type of dye-sensitized solar cell. The greatly improved efficiency of the new solar cell could pave the way for its widespread use. Thus, alternative applications will increase in the use of solar energy as clean energy.

DSCs have a wide range of uses.

Dye-sensitized solar cells, also known as Grätzel cells, were invented in 1988 by Brian O’Regan and Michael Grätzel as a low-cost alternative solar cell. The panels of dye-sensitive solar cells are transparent and they are cheaper to produce than others. These cells, which can be produced in more than one color, are currently used in some buildings with glass facades, such as the Swiss Tech Convention Center.

In addition, the fact that DSC panels can be produced to be flexible makes them suitable for portable electronic devices and IoT systems. Although current dye-sensitized solar cells are being sold on a large scale commercially, until now they have been less efficient at converting sunlight into energy than conventional solar panels.

Efficiency record broken

With the latest developments made by scientists, this efficiency problem seems to have disappeared. The EPFL team managed to break the record by increasing the efficiency rate to 15.2 percent for the first time under simulated sunlight. At the same time, the new DSC has proven to maintain operational stability under test conditions of more than 500 hours. In addition, by increasing the active area to 2.8 cm2 under ambient light, the power conversion efficiency was increased to 30.2 percent.

“Our findings pave the way for easy access to high-performance DSCs and offer promising prospects for low-power electronic devices that use ambient light as their energy source,” the research team said. We may see that dye-sensitive solar cells are widely used in the windows of houses, skyscrapers or greenhouses in the future. Finally, let’s mention that the financing of the project is provided by the European Union Horizon 2020 program.