March 27, 2016

A new study published on March 24, 2016 in the journal Science demonstrates that hybrid lead halide provskites, solar cells that can be produced cheaply with easily synthesized materials, have an astonishing ability: not only do they absorb energy from the sun to generate electricity as all solar cells do, they actually produce additional light energy.

Today’s photo cell efficiency record is close to 21%, well below the 33% absolute theoretical ceiling that William Shockley and Hans Queisser predicted in their widely accepted 1961 paper. It may now be possible to reach that limit at a much lower cost.