Scientist at the Niels Bohr Institute have found out one nanowire crystal is capable of super-concentrating the amount of the sunlight that it is exposed to up fifteen times. This discovery means that the assumed limit to solar cell efficiency can be increased dramatically. The discovery should lead to new types of smaller more efficient solar cells like are used in solar phone chargers, but also will have uses in other electronics.
While doing the research the scientist found that “the nanowires naturally concentrate the sun’s rays into a very small area in the crystal by up to a factor 15. Because the diameter of a nanowire crystal is smaller than the wavelength of the light coming from the sun it can cause resonances in the intensity of light in and around nanowires. Thus, the resonances can give a concentrated sunlight, where the energy is converted, which can be used to give a higher conversion efficiency of the sun’s energy.”
This will have a huge effects on the design and production of solar cells although it will be a few years before the new technology will be in use by industry and start to show up in your solar powered devices.