L R AS Published on Saturday 29 September 2018 - n° 249 - Categories:R&D , cells
Combination of a solar cell and a storage system
Researchers from a university in Saudi Arabia and the American University of Wisconsin-Madison have created what they call a "solar flux battery". It is a
combination of a solar cell and a storage system. The device can act as (i) a standard solar cell, which generates electricity from solar radiation; (ii) absorb solar energy during daylight hours and store it as electricity; (iii) a solar cell that can be used to generate electricity from the sun's rays; and (iv) a storage device that can be used to store solar energy in the form of a solar cell.(ii) absorb solar energy during daylight hours and store it as chemical energy for subsequent supply of electricity when night falls or the sky becomes cloudy; and (iii) be a storage device that can be charged with electrical energy when necessary.
The combination of energy generation and storage could be a more efficient, scalable, compact and cost-effective approach than the two separate packages.
So far, they have achieved an efficiency of 14.1%, but the device is too expensive for commercial operation. They estimate that they can achieve an efficiency of 25% because some energy is still being lost.
This combination is in line with the work of German scientists at the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) who have two research projects on energy storage cells.
PV Magazine of September 28th
