Source: Engineering Source

A new technology for the fabrication of nanotech antennas promises to lift the efficiency level of silicon solar cells from its current 10 per cent to a staggering and unprecedented 70 per cent.

Scientists have long touted the theoretical promise of nano-sized antennas called “retennas”, thus named for their ability to simultaneously absorb solar energy and rectify it from alternating current to direct current.

Calculations indicate that a solar cell comprised of retennas should be capable of reaping over 70 per cent of  the sun’s electromagnetic radiation for conversion into electricity, a remarkable amount given that the most advanced silicon panels available at present are capable of harvesting only 20 per cent of available solar radiation.

Though the technology has long shown immense promise on the drawing board, it has proven extremely difficult to achieve in reality, however, due to the challenges involved in the nanotech fabrication of the antennas.

The distance between the core pair of electrodes in the rectennas must be between one and two nanometers apart,  a distance equal to about a millionth of a millimetre. Read more