Solar cells convert sunlight to electricity.But they don’t take advantage of all that solar heat, thereby _____1_____ the majority of the solar energy reaching the cell.The sun’s heat can _____2_____ warm up liquid that can then warm a building’s water, but those devices don’t generate electricity.Now, scientists have developed a single device to do both.
It’s an array of clear tubes, each five milimeters in diameter.The tubes are filled with oil blended with a proprietary dye.A polymer photovoltaic _____3_____ the back of the tubes.When sunlight hits the tubes the liquid within becomes superheated.In a home situation, it would then flow into a heat pump to transfer that heat.Meanwhile, sunlight also strikes the polymer, where _____4_____ electricity.
The scientists say that their device has a 30 percent efficiency in converting sunlight into power.Conventional solar-only devices with polymer absorbers have less than 10 percent efficiency.The research appears in the journal Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells.
Continued research and development should _____5_____ more light—and a lot more heat—on the entire field of alternative energy production.
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