Solar power could finally be viable with this invention

Rochester researchers boosted solar thermoelectric generator efficiency 15 times using spectral engineering and thermal management.

Solar thermoelectric generators, or STEGs, are being looked at as a new way to make electricity from the sun. Unlike the solar panels most people are familiar with, which only use sunlight directly, STEGs can also use heat. They work by having a hot side and a cold side with semiconductor materials in between. The difference in temperature between the two sides produces electricity through something called the Seebeck effect.

The problem has been that STEGs are not very efficient. Most of them convert less than 1 percent of sunlight into electricity, while regular solar panels used on homes reach about 20 percent. This gap has kept STEGs from being widely used.

Researchers at the University of Rochester’s Institute of Optics say they have found a way to make STEGs much more effective. In a study published in Light: Science and Applications, they describe new methods that boost power generation by 15 times compared to earlier designs, with only a 25 percent increase in device weight.

“For decades, the research community has been focusing on improving the semiconductor materials used in STEGs and has made modest gains in overall efficiency,” said Chunlei Guo, professor of optics and physics and senior scientist at Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics. “In this study, we don’t even touch the semiconductor materials—instead, we focused on the hot and the cold sides of the device instead. By combining better solar energy absorption and heat trapping at the hot side with better heat dissipation at the cold side, we made an astonishing improvement in efficiency.”

The team’s approach was to improve how the device absorbs and traps heat on the hot side, and how it releases heat on the cold side. On the hot side, they used femtosecond laser processing to turn regular tungsten into what they call a selective solar absorber, or W-SSA. This surface absorbs more than 80 percent of sunlight at high temperatures while giving off less infrared radiation, which means less wasted energy. To keep the heat in, they placed the absorber inside a small plastic chamber that acts like a greenhouse. This reduced heat loss from convection by more than 40 percent.

On the cold side, they used the same laser technique on aluminum to create a micro-structured heat dissipator, or μ-dissipator. This design improved cooling through both radiation and convection, doubling the performance of a normal aluminum heat sink. By making the hot side hotter and the cold side cooler, the temperature difference across the STEG increased, which in turn raised the amount of electricity produced.

The researchers showed that their improved STEGs could power LEDs much more effectively than current devices. Guo also pointed out that the technology could be used for wireless sensor networks, wearable electronics, and even medical sensors. It could also serve as a renewable energy option in rural areas where access to electricity is limited.

While STEGs are still less efficient than solar panels, this work shows that focusing on thermal management rather than just semiconductor materials can make a big difference. It opens up new possibilities for how solar energy might be captured and used in the future.

Source: University of Rochester, Nature

This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Sunday 17 May 2026 at 7:36 am AEST (my time).

News posts: 2023 5,800+ | 2024 5,700+ | 2025 5,700+ | 2026 (to end of April) 1,700

RIP Matrix