Solar panels produce electricity when the soleilsoleil is the highest, which does not necessarily correspond to user needs. What is less known is that these panels lose efficiency as temperatures rise, reducing production for a period of heat waveheat waveFor example.
In an article published in the journal Joulea team of researchers from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in Spain and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden propose a new approach, creating a battery that protects the photovoltaic cellphotovoltaic cell of the heatheat from the sun and storesenergyenergy for later.
A more ecological solution than a standard battery
The battery is of the Most type (molecular storage systems of thesolar thermal energysolar thermal energy), and contains moleculesmolecules organics that pass through a chip microfluidicsmicrofluidics. They undergo photoisomerization under the effect of blue lightblue light and ultraviolet, storing solar energy in chemical form. The system, which is placed on the photovoltaic cell, is transparenttransparent for the wavelengthswavelengths beyond 450 nm, creating an optical filter that cools it without blocking its operation. During tests, researchers found that the cell temperature dropped by 8°C, and the system’s efficiency hybridhybrid was higher than when they operate separately, reaching 14.9%.
In addition, this battery is more ecological, being manufactured with common elements such as carbonecarboneof thehydrogenhydrogenoxygen andnitrogennitrogenavoiding the use of lithiumlithiumau cobaltcobalt and at nickelnickel usually used in batteries. Most systems can operate for over 1,000 charge-discharge cycles. The researchers indicate that this hybrid system can still be improved, and believe that it could theoretically achieve an efficiency of 25%.
