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Breakthrough: IBM Makes a Solar Cell Out of Inexpensive "Earth Abundant" Materials : TreeHugger
The layer that absorbs sunlight to convert it into electricity is made with Copper (Cu), Tin (Sn), Zinc (Zn), Sulfur (S) and/or Selenium (Se). This is pretty abundant compared to the Copper (Cu), Indium (In), Gallium (Ga), and Selenium (Se) that GIGS thin film cells use.
The beauty is that it has a "conversion efficiency of 9.6 percent, which is 40 percent higher than previous attempts to create a solar cell made of similar materials." But this is just a start. More improvements to power conversion should be possible.
If I'm reading this right, this would be a substantial decrease in the reliance on "rare earth" metals. However, an efficiency of 9.6 percent could be improved. The world record is just north of 40%. Maybe some reader of this blog who works on solar cells (hint hint) could provide a bit of perspective in the comments?
