Leaf-Inspired Solar Panels Make a Huge Increase in Power Generation

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, NEW JERSEY, USA: Researchers from Princeton University have achieved a 47 percent increase in their rate of power generation from leaf inspired flexible plastic solar cells. 

They attained this by only mimicking nature to make light channels. The biomimicry method, by texturing the surface to copy the wrinkles of a typical leaf, has resulted in a low rate, stylish solution for polymer-based solar cells, which are comparatively inexpensive to manufacture.

The U.S. Navy and the U.S. Air Force have provided funding in support of the Princeton biomimicry research, as the Department of Defense uncompromisingly changeover to solar energy and other low cost, dependable substitutes to fossil fuel. The National Science Foundation and the University of Pennsylvania contributed to the research.

Polymer solar cells are notoriously inefficient compared to silicon solar cells, but what they lack in strike they compensate in structure, flexibility, durability, light weight and above all, low manufacturing costs. The team found that a mix of wrinkles and folds performed better than texturing the surface with only one or the other.  Absorption is a particular challenge for conventional solar cells, and the textured surface increased it by about 600 percent. Taking their reference from the humble leaf, researchers have used microscopic folds on the surface of photovoltaic material to significantly increase the power output of flexible, low-cost solar cells. The research team’s work involves photovoltaic systems made of relatively cheap plastic.