Scientists are attempting to reduce the costs of harnessing the sun’s energy by creating ceramic tiles that can perform photovoltaic action, so-called “solar tiles” that can be used to tile roofs.
Hugo Aguas, Rodrigo Martins and their research group at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and UNINOVA have successfully fabricated solar tiles and demonstrated market viability with a cost estimation.
Their new solar tiles were able to achieve a 5% conversion efficiency and 80% quantum efficiency.
Read the EES article today:
Silicon thin film solar cells on commercial tiles
H Aguas, S K Ram, A Araujo, D Gaspar, A Vicente, S A Filonovich, E Fortunato, R Martins and I Ferreira
Energy Environ. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c1ee02303a
