New self-regenerative solar panel hits the market and promises to revolutionize renewable energy

Australian researchers develop new solar panel capable of regenerating itself with just sunlight, promising to change the aerospace renewable energy market.

A team of researchers working in the University of Sydney, in Australia, has developed a new state-of-the-art self-healing solar panel that could change its use in space operations. New renewable energy technology uses what researchers call “miracle stuff” known as perovskite.

New solar panel will make it feasible to send new satellites into space

Previously, perovskite was used to develop standard silicon solar cells with higher efficiency for renewable energy generation. As such, its promise is two-fold, particularly if it does indeed have self-healing features.

The team detailed new solar panels in a study published in Advanced Energy Materials. This material has long been acclaimed for its special qualities, although it is essential to note that no commercial items have been made available that use it heavily.

That said, the goal of being able to produce a new self-correcting solar panel is exciting and intriguing, especially as more satellites will certainly be sent into space in the coming years.

The ability to reduce the amount of radiation damage that satellites must suffer would be of paramount importance for the production of spacecraft, which can continue much longer in low Earth orbit before needing to be retired, as repairing objects like satellites is dangerous and challenging.

The degradation caused by radiation in space could be reversed using a heat treatment of perovskite solar cells in the vacuum of space. However, at the moment, the only tests that should be done are miniature ones, carried out using a microprobe that mimics the exposure to proton radiation that solar cells normally undergo.

Understand how the new solar panel works based on perovskite

As noted above, under laboratory conditions designed to simulate the effects of proton radiation over tens or even hundreds of years, the researchers tested ultrathin solar cell substrates suitable for use in satellites, the first time materials with such properties have been tested in this way. form.

The tests found that the gap transport material (HTM) in the perovskite solar panel was critical to how much damage it could take and how well it could heal to continue generating renewable energy. 

HTM facilitates gap movement in cells, enabling them to stay apart and renewable energy to be produced. Two particular types of HTM and one type of dopant, a modifying substance applied to HTMs, have been shown to be the best at resisting damage from proton radiation. Carefully configured, HTM can also enable self-correction of the new solar panel and all the way back up to 100% efficiency.

Curing is done by the process of annealing or applying heat in a vacuum.

Solar panel curing is accomplished through an annealing process or application of heat in a vacuum that can be powered by the sun. In theory, solar radiation could repair these solar cells as well as power them.

Getting this project off the ground will require a lot more research, however this study shows that it is possible to one day have spacecraft powered by solar panels that can repair themselves. Given the high costs of going to space, this could make a big difference.

According to nanoscientist Anita Ho-Baillie, from the University of Sydney, the expectation is that the insights generated by this work will help future efforts in the development of light and low-cost solar cells for future space applications.