Hokkaido University researchers built a photoelectrode that works over a broad range of wavelengths to gain an order of magnitude improvement over previous efforts.
Solar energy has enormous potential to power our future. Each hour, the sun sends more energy to the Earth than we use during an entire year. The challenge has always been to convert the energy from the sun into electricity. Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on most residential homes are about 15% efficient. The newest commercial PV designs are reaching 20 to 25 percent, while expensive military and space application PV cells can reach 30 percent efficiency or slightly higher. So when researchers at Hokkaido University in Japan claimed to reach 85 percent efficiency for the conversion of solar energy, people took notice.
