Worlds first combined solar cell and battery

In keeping with industry research to bring down the cost of solar power and increase it's efficiency, the worlds first solar cell and battery in one have been created. Hugely increasing efficiency and dropping costs by a quarter. The way of the future is upon us.

In the October 3, 2014 issue of the journal Nature Communications, the researchers report that they've succeeded in combining a battery and a solar cell into one hybrid device. 

Key to the innovation is a mesh solar panel, which allows air to enter the battery, and a special process for transferring electrons between the solar panel and the battery electrode. Inside the device, light and oxygen enable different parts of the chemical reactions that charge the battery. 

The university will license the solar battery to industry, where Yiying Wu, professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State, says it will help tame the costs of renewable energy. 

"The state of the art is to use a solar panel to capture the light, and then use a cheap battery to store the energy," Wu said. "We've integrated both functions into one device. Any time you can do that, you reduce cost." 

He and his students believe that their device brings down costs by 25 percent. 

The invention also solves a longstanding problem in solar energy efficiency, by eliminating the loss of electricity that normally occurs when electrons have to travel between a solar cell and an external battery. Typically, only 80 percent of electrons emerging from a solar cell make it into a battery. 

With this new design, light is converted to electrons inside the battery, so nearly 100 percent of the electrons are saved. more