Beating efficiency limits and overheating have long been the holy grail 
of solar panel research and development. Now, California’s solar scientists think they may have found a way to solve both problems with a single, elegant solution.
Researchers at Stanford University’s Global Climate and Energy Project and the Stanford Institute for Materials Energy Systems say that they have conclusively proven that a process called “photon enhanced thermionic emission” (PETE) works to improve the efficiency of solar modules as they heat up.
Typically, solar panels lose efficiency as they heat, which is problematic for a device designed to bake in the hot sun all day. Cooling systems use power and waste energy, and energy conversion efficiency rarely exceeds 20 percent.
PETE uses cesium-coated gallium nitride semiconductors – chosen to resist heat levels in excess of 200 degrees centigrade – to convert both heat and light into electricity. The California researchers think that the technology would be best deployed in solar concentrators and big, utility-scale solar farms.
In theory, though, they could be deployed alongside any solar installation. Rather than engineering an entirely new infrastructure for the PETE system, the team thinks that it would be better to create a bolt-on augmentation for existing systems.
With a theoretical energy conversion efficiency of as much as 50 or 60 percent, PETE represents a truly exciting quantum leap in state-of-the-art solar panel technology.ADNFCR-3324-ID-19918012-ADNFCR
