108. Solar Efficiency Record Broken, Lumber Grown in the Lab, Dissolving Pacemaker Improved

<p><a href='https://interestingengineering.com/record-highest-efficiency-solar-cell'>Scientists just broke the record for the highest efficiency solar cell</a> | Interesting Engineering (01:46)</p> <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">A team of researchers at the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created a solar cell with a record efficiency of 39.5 percent.<ul><li style="font-weight:400;">This is the<a href='https://www.nrel.gov/news/press/2022/nrel-creates-highest-efficiency-1-sun-solar-cell.html?ref=refind'> highest efficiency solar cell</a> of any type, measured using standard 1-sun conditions.</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Under lighting conditions equivalent to that of the sun</li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">The solar cell was also tested for its potential in space, especially for powering communications satellites, which are powered by solar cells and require high cell efficiency. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Under such conditions, it has a 34.2 percent efficiency.</li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Principal investigator Myles Steiner, talks on the new solar cell:<ul><li style="font-weight:400;">“The new cell is more efficient and has a simpler design that may be useful for a variety of new applications, such as highly area-constrained applications or low-radiation space applications."</li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">The novel solar cell is built on an architecture known as inverted metamorphic multijunction (IMM) cells. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">gallium indium phosphide on top, </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">gallium arsenide in the center, </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">gallium indium arsenide on the bottom.</li> </ul> <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Has three components that generate electric current in response to light.</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Each component is built with a different material: </li> </ul> </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">These materials specialize in various light wavelengths