–

LET THERE BE LIGHT: An Unexpected Discovery Could Yield A Full Spectrum Solar Cell.

The article goes a bit deep into the physics involved, but the gist is that an old familiar material used for light-emitting diodes was discovered to have different properties than expected (due to improved manufacturing techniques). Since LEDs and solar cells operate on related principles, this could lead to a boost in solar cell theoretical conversion efficiency to 50% – 70% by taking advantage of the full spectrum of visible light (here including ultraviolet and infrared).

The article doesn’t mention it specifically, but one can guess from the way the new material works that solar cells could even be tailored to take advantage of the specific spectrum available at a given location, having more layers tailored to more-abundant wavelengths or no layers for wavelengths absent due to atmospheric filtering, etc. Not sure if it would really be worthwhile to do so, but there may be planetary applications where this would be useful.

(Does this link between LEDs and solar cells remind anyone else of “Douglas-Martin Sun-Power Screens”?)