澳大利亞科學家宣佈在太陽能方面取得突破
Australian scientists said Monday they had made a breakthrough in increasing the efficiency of solar panels, which they hope could eventually lead to cheaper sources of renewable Energy.
澳大利亞的科學家們週一表示，他們在提高太陽能電池板效能方面取得了突破，希望可以以更低的成本使用可再生能源。In what the University of New South Wales described as a world first, the researchers were able to convert more than 40 percent of sunlight hitting the panels into electricity.
據新南威爾士大學，研究者們能將照射在面板上超40%的陽光轉化爲電能，這是世界的先例。
"This is the highest efficiency ever reported for sunlight conversion into electricity," UNSW Professor Martin Green said in a statement.
新南威爾士大學的教授MartinGreen 在一份聲明中說，“這是所有獲報道的將太陽能轉換爲電能的案例中效率最高的一例”。
"We used commercial solar cells, butin a new way, so these efficiency improvements are readily accessible to the solar industry."
“我們使用的是商用太陽能電池板，但我們使用的方式有所不同，這些提升的效益很快將被應用到太陽能行業”。While traditional methods use one solarcell, which limits the conversion of sunlight to electricity to about 33 percent, the newer technology splits the sunlight into four different cells,which boosts the conversion levels, Green told AFP.
Green對法新社說，傳統使用方式將轉化率控制在了33%，而更新的技術能將陽光分散在4塊不同的電池板上，這樣就提高了轉換水平。The record efficiency level was achieved intests in Sydney and replicated at the United Statesgovernment's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the university said.
該大學表示，他們在悉尼測驗的時候獲得了創下記錄的效率等級，在美國國家可再生能源實驗室再次獲得了這一記錄。Green is hopeful the technology can also eventually be used for solarpanels mounted on people's roofs, which he said currently had a 15 to 18 percent efficiency rate.
Green希望這項技術最終將可以被應用到太陽能電池板並出現在家家戶戶的屋頂上，因爲目前人們使用的太陽能電池板轉化效率只有15%~18%。"The panels that you have on the roof of your home, at the moment they just have a single cell but eventually they'll have several different cells... and they'll be able to improve their efficiencyto this kind of level," he told AFP.
他對法新社說，“你們家屋頂安裝的太陽能電池板當前只有單塊電池板，但終將會被幾塊不同的電池板替代。。。而這些電池板能將轉化效率提升到這個水平”。He was confident that in a decade solar-generated electricity would be cheaper than that produced by coal.
他自信地表示，十年後，利用太陽能發電的成本將低於煤炭發電的成本。
