New solar panels capture water from the air to cool themselves

As with human beings, solar panels can't perform well when overheated. The researchers have now discovered ways to create them to "sweat"--allowing the panels to cool and boost the power they produce. It's "an easy elegant, effective, and elegant method of retrofitting existing solar cells to get immediate efficiency gains," says Liangbing Hu, an expert in materials science at the University of Maryland, College Park. Presently around 600 gigawatts of solar power are available worldwide, supplying around 3% of all electricity needs. This capacity is projected to grow fivefold in the next 10 years. The majority of silicon cells convert sunlight into electricity. The typical silicon cell converts less than 20% sun's energy that strikes them into electricity. Most of the remainder turns into heat. This could warm the panels as high as 40 degrees Celsius. With any temperature that is over 25degC performance of the panels diminishes. In a field where sc...