World’s smallest electric generator to power solar cell tech

Opening new doors in solar cell technology, an international team of scientists including a young Indian researcher has developed the world’s smallest electric generator that can convert sunlight into electricity with twice the efficiency of conventional solar cells.

At the core of the technology lies a novel nano-material that does three things: convert sunlight into electricity, convert the heat generated by the sunlight into electricity, and store the electricity within the molecule.

“Normal solar panels have 20 per cent efficiency in converting sunlight into electricity. Our material can do it with 40 per cent efficiency,” Pritam Sadhukhan, an Indian researcher working at Kyushu University in Japan and the first author of the study detailing the research, told DH.