The Renewable Energy Update is a regular segment on The Daily every Wednesday with Dr. Matt Wright. Listen to previous episodes here.
Renewable Energy Update: Improving Solar Power
How can we improve the efficiency of solar panels?
Researchers have found that defects on the surface of solar panels could mean that we are not getting the most out of solar energy. To combat this issue researchers in Switzerland are creating thin layers of silicon -more than 1000x thinner than a human hair!- to place on top of panels.
Dr Matt Wright spoke with Dr Audrey Morisset, European Postdoctoral Fellow at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) a university in Switzerland about their research into improving the performance of solar panels.