MIT claims "almost 100% efficient" solar cell

[Chris_]

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=2JLKEZDUPJZA0QSNDLSCKHA?articleID=209900956

R. Colin Johnson
EE Times
(07/31/2008 2:00 PM EDT)


PORTLAND, Ore. — Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have combined a liquid catalyst with photovoltaic cells to achieve what they claim is a solar energy system that could generate electricity around the clock.

A liquid catalyst was added to water before electrolysis to achieve what the researchers claim is almost 100-percent efficiency. When combined with photovoltaic cells to store energy chemically, the resulting solar energy systems could generate electricity around the clock, the MIT team said.

"The hard part of getting water to split is not the hydrogen -- platinum as a catalyst works fine for the hydrogen. But platinum works very poorly for oxygen, making you use much more energy," said MIT chemistry professor Daniel Nocera. "What we have done is made a catalyst work for the oxygen part without any extra energy. In fact, with our catalyst almost 100 percent of the current used for electrolysis goes into making oxygen and hydrogen."

 
(more...)

[Chris_]

IBM claims to have developed a solar cell with a tenfold increase in efficiency ... their solution was basically a magnifying glass placed over a liquid-cooled cell to control the heat.

By mimicking the antics of a child using a magnifying glass to burn a leaf or a camper to start a fire, IBM scientists are using a large lens to concentrate the Sun’s power, capturing a record 230 watts onto a centimeter square solar cell, in a technology known as concentrator photovoltaics, or CPV. That energy is then converted into 70 watts of usable electrical power, about five times the electrical power density generated by typical cells using CPV technology in solar farms.

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/24203.wss

[DumbAss Tanker]

Despite the headline, it sounds like they actually haven't done squat with the photovoltaic part of the system, it really doesn't talk about the light conversion part of the system at all.

Apparently what they are really saying is that they have an almost 100%-efficient USE of the photovoltaic electrical output to electrolyze H2 and O2 from water, which can then be used to run fuel cells 24/7 (or, of course, to provide H2 for a mobile combustion engine).  Still pretty cool, but it involves a more elaborate composite power system, not a quantum leap in solar cell tech.

[JohnnyReb]

Despite the headline, it sounds like they actually haven't done squat with the photovoltaic part of the system, it really doesn't talk about the light conversion part of the system at all.

Apparently what they are really saying is that they have an almost 100%-efficient USE of the photovoltaic electrical output to electrolyze H2 and O2 from water, which can then be used to run fuel cells 24/7 (or, of course, to provide H2 for a mobile combustion engine).  Still pretty cool, but it involves a more elaborate composite power system, not a quantum leap in solar cell tech.

Gotta remember it was a journalism major that wrote that up. You can't get into details that may be way over their heads.

....but I suspect you were right the first time.