Researchers at the Department of Electronic Engineering of the northeastern Spain’s Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) have obtained a record efficiency of 22% with silicon solar cells that incorporate a surface treatment called black silicon on the front of the cell. This technique coats the surface with a dry chemical that results in small conical tips at the nanometric scale.
According to the UPC researcher Pablo Ortega, “within about three to four years it will be feasible to apply black silicon in the solar panel industry and the market in general.”
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-06-solar-cells-energy.html#jCp