New Solar Power Source and Storage Developed

Solar power was one of the few sectors of the UK economy that performed well in April. The Met Office says it has probably been the sunniest April on record, and the solar power industry reported its biggest ever electricity production (9.68 GW) in the UK at 12:30 on Monday, April 20th. Brian McCallion of Northern Ireland, who has 16 solar panels on his roof, has benefited from the recent weather.

"We've used them for almost five years and save around £1,000 each year", says Mr. McCallion, who lives in Strabane, near the border. He believes that if they were more efficient, we could save more money and maybe invest in batteries to store it.

That efficiency might be coming. There is a worldwide race, from San Francisco to Shenzhen, to make a more efficient solar cell.Todays average commercial solar panel converts 17-19% of the light energy hitting it to electricity.This is up from 12% just 10 years ago. But what if we could boost this to 30%?

More efficient solar cells mean we could get much more than todays 2.4% of global electricity supply from the sun.Solar is already the worlds fastest growing energy technology. Ten years ago, there were only 20 gigawatts of installed solar capacity globally - one gigawatt being roughly the output of a single large power station.

By the end of last year, the worlds installed solar power had jumped to about 600 gigawatts. Even with the disruption caused by Covid-19, we will probably add 105 gigawatts of solar capacity worldwide this year, forecasts London-based research company, IHS Markit.

Most solar cells are made from wafer-thin slices of silicon crystals, 70% of which are made in China and Taiwan.