Scientists from the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) in South Korea have unveiled a hybrid solar panel and supercapacitor that offers several advantages over traditional solar panels. First of all, hybrid panels are capable of delivering more power to the consumer, which conventional panels cannot boast of. Also, supercapacitors built into the panels can store energy on site, improving the efficiency of the solar system.
Image source: DGIST
The research team has significantly improved the performance of existing supercapacitor analogues by using transition metal electrode materials (such as manganese, cobalt, copper, iron, zinc and others) and proposed a new energy storage technology that combines supercapacitors with solar cells. The proposed technology has significantly improved the performance of energy storage devices, demonstrating significant advances in energy density, power, and charge and discharge stability.
The energy density achieved in the study is 35.5 Wh/kg, which is significantly higher than the energy storage per unit weight in previous studies (5–20 Wh/kg). The power density reaches an impressive 2555.6 W/kg, which significantly exceeds the values obtained in previous studies (up to 1000 W/kg). The development demonstrates the ability to quickly release large amounts of power, providing immediate power delivery even for high-power devices. In addition, minor losses in capacity were noted during repeated charging and discharging cycles, which confirms the suitability of the device for long-term use.
Finally, the efficiency of the integrated storage system reached 63% and an overall efficiency of 5.17% under illumination of 10 mW/cm2 (this is about 10 times weaker than the average sun on a cloudless day). The researchers see great potential in these parameters for future commercial developments, but they certainly need further improvement before reaching the market.