Slicing solar power costs: New method cuts waste in making most efficient solar cells

A wafer of the element germanium, a semiconductor that is used as the bottom layer of highly efficient solar power cells. University of Utah engineers have devised a new way of cutting the wafers so that less of the expensive material is wasted during the cutting process. The method may reduce the cost of germanium-based solar cells and make them more economical to use on Earth. Because of their high cost, they now are used mainly on spacecraft. Credit: Eberhard Bamberg, University of Utah