One of the revolutions is the “bifacial panel”, which increases electricity production by 20% to 30% because it generates electricity from both sides.
“The price of bifacial solar panels has fallen significantly and has almost become equivalent to that of traditional panels,” explains Marco Deblois, co-founder of Rematek Énergie, a distributor of renewable energy products which has created software for designing electrical installations off-grid. “And the price of solar panels in general has started to fall again, after rising a bit during the pandemic due to shortages. »
The installation and batteries have also seen progress. “Before, electronics were sold separately,” says Mr. Deblois. Now there is an array of integrated products, all the components in one box. This reduces installation costs. »
The cost of lithium batteries has also fallen, to the point that they are more advantageous than traditional lead-acid batteries. “They last ten years instead of three years, and you can discharge them to 90%, whereas you should not use more than half the energy of lead batteries to avoid damaging them,” says Mr. Deblois.
Engineers at universities are also working on new advances. At the University of Ottawa, electrical engineer Karin Hinzer has published two studies over the past year on improvements to solar panels.
One of these studies, published in the journal Progress in Photovoltaics, concerns bifacial panels. “We install white reflective surfaces under the bifacial panels to amplify energy production,” says Mandy Lewis, a doctoral student supervised by Ms. Hinzer who is the lead author of the study.
These reflective materials are inexpensive. “And there is a higher gain at more northern latitudes,” Ms. Lewis says. The first markets will be commercial and industrial flat-roof buildings, according to Hinzer.
The other study, published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, will take a little longer to have concrete applications. “We are talking about a new generation of micrometric photovoltaic cells,” explains Mathieu de Lafontaine, a postdoctoral researcher who is the lead author of the study.
These micrometer cells could be installed on cell phones and provide them with enough energy because they are more efficient. On these micrometric cells, the shadow generated by the electrodes collecting electricity is reduced by 95%. The first markets will be those where the size and weight of photovoltaic cells must be reduced to a minimum, such as satellites or the Internet of Things.
