Professor Martin Green

A new world record has been set for solar power use. This high efficiency for solar power use has been achieved by the University of New South Wales' solar cell researchers, nearly 43 percent of sunlight can now be converted into electricity.

Scientist Professor Martin Green leads the research group UNSW Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence, and with the help of two groups from the US, they have been able to demonstrate multi-cell technology, converting the record-breaking amount of sunlight into electricity.

Professor Green explains, "Because sunlight is made up of many colors of different energy, ranging from the high energy ultraviolet to the low energy infrared, a combination of solar cells of different materials can convert sunlight more efficiently than any single cell."

A new five-cell combination has been created by the Professor Green and colleague Dr Anita Ho-Baillie, by combining cells that optimally made use of different parts of the solar spectrum they beat the previous world record by 0.3%!