The Green Geek

Russian scientists develop ultra-efficient ‘Star Battery’

Russian scientists at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) have announced a the development of a “Star Battery” device. The device is is an ultra-efficient metamaterial photoelement coupled to an ultracapacitor. The scientists claim the device converts visible light to electricity with an efficiency of 54%, double that of currently available solar cells. In addition, the device reportedly also converts low light and IR light into electricity at an efficiency of 31%.

Electricity created by the photoelement is contained in the ultracapacitor, where it can be stored efficiently, with none of the environmental problems of chemical batteries. Ultracapacitors have the ability to not only store a greater amount of energy but also charge very quickly, and discharge at a regulated rate, which makes them better than normal capacitors.

via EcoGeek