New Energy World™
New Energy World™ embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low-carbon technologies.
The sun shines on solar innovation
26/10/2022
7 min read
Feature
Innovation is underway in nearly every area of solar energy technology, from new materials to the deployment of floating solar installations and agrivoltaics. New Energy World’s Brian Davis reports.
They say there’s nothing new under the sun. Don’t believe it. Innovation is full speed ahead in the solar energy photovoltaics (PV) sector to create more efficient and cost-effective solar panels, with new materials and modules for deployment on buildings, agrivoltaics and floating solar installations, as well as conventional installations worldwide. There is also an eye on improved sustainability, recycling and re-use.
Global installed solar PV capacity has climbed from 2 GW in 2002 to more than 1 TW in 2022 and is expected to increase substantially over the coming decades, according to the Global market outlook for solar power 2022–26, published by SolarPower Europe. What’s more, solar power is now 88% cheaper than forecast a decade ago.
There has also been competition to increase the efficiency of solar panels which have long been around 15–20%. Indeed, the first solar cell was invented by New York inventor Charles Fritts in 1883 by coating selenium with a thin layer of gold – sounds expensive! Then Bell Labs created the first practical silicon solar cell in 1954, with cells of about 6% efficiency.