A long metal bench crammed full of lenses, mirrors and prisms wraps around a large laser in the centre of the Ultrafast Laser Lab at Victoria University of Wellington’s Kelburn campus.
The Ultrafast Laser Lab at Victoria University of Wellington. Photo: Liz Garton / RNZ
Follow Our Changing World on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeartRADIO, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Here Dr Michael Price runs tests on different materials, as he tries to find the next breakthrough for better, cheaper and more efficient solar power.
The quest to harness the sun’s energy began in the mid-1880s with the discovery of the photovoltaic effect. Today, it has advanced to the large, crystalline silicon solar panels we see on roofs. But there’s a limit to the efficiency of these silicon solar panels, and Michael wants to take it the next step.
Dr Michael Price Photo: Liz Garton / RNZ
“If we could harvest more of the infrared, more of the ultraviolet, that would be one way that we could up that efficiency limit. And some of the materials we're looking at can help with that,” he says.
In particular, Michael and his colleagues have been studying an organic molecule called Y6, which he thinks might be the key for that next breakthrough.
To learn more:
-
Listen to the full episode on Our Changing World.
-
Read the Nature paper referred to in this episode.
-
Listen to ‘Green cities of the future – what we can expect in 2050’ to learn more about MacDiarmid Institute research into technology that will reduce our environmental impacts.
