Solar panels are already the cheapest source of electrical energy that exists and their prices continue to fall, but their energy efficiency is still low compared to what they receive from the sun.
The tests carried out using perovskite have given some positive but not definitive results, since its useful life is still very short, and the researchers are still working on the subject.
But other researchers at Stanford University have done some very interesting and promising work. They have developed a pyramidal lens so that sunlight falls perpendicularly on the solar panel regardless of the time of day.
Solar panels generate more power when sunlight hits them vertically, and slightly less when it hits them obliquely. That is why there are solar panel systems that move with the direction of the sun to obtain the maximum energy. But these systems are much more expensive and have breakdown problems; and that is why they are not used much.
This project (you can see a sample in the photo above) has been called AGILE (Axially Graded Index Lens) and ensures that the solar panel is supplying its maximum energy almost all day long, without the need for moving parts to follow the direction of the sun. That is achieved with the lenses.
The lenses receive sunlight and through diffraction cause the rays to fall perpendicularly on the panel. And so it provides its maximum energy.
In this way, with a panel that is one third the size of the current ones, almost the same amount of energy is achieved. Or what is the same, to obtain a certain amount of energy, it’s needed one third of the surface of the solar panels.
This is a very important saving when it comes to manufacturing solar panels, and having clean electrical energy.
The tests carried out are at the laboratory level, and a lot of additional work is needed to bring it to mass production, but taking into account the enormous interest in obtaining energy in a renewable way, I am sure that others will go down the same path, and it is likely that we’ll be able to see it on the market in not too long.
Hopefully it will be like that.
EN 
ES_ES 