Selparis

Space Exploration

Posts Tagged ‘photovoltaics’

Solar Cell Efficiency Boosted by Wrinkles

Posted on: May 10th, 2012 by partapsingh No Comments

While we normally associate wrinkles with aging, nature likes to add wrinkles to surfaces improve efficiency. The wrinkles of the brain increase surface area and therefore processing capability. The friction ridges on our fingertips allow for fine texture perception. Most importantly for the context of this article, nature produces wrinkles in leaves to improve the capture of energy from light.

Leaf

Taking this cue, researchers from Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania decided to try the same with photovoltaics, which have so far been rather remarkably flat:

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