Guanajuato, Gto., October 2015. With the purpose to use solar radiation, Dr. Rosalba Fuentes –professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering from the University of Guanajuato—develops hybrid photovoltaic cells, which allow diminishing costs that represent an obstacle to use this energy source to benefit society.

The researcher from Campus Guanajuato explained that if she could use an hour of the solar energy that reaches the planet, it would be enough to cover a year in energy consumption worldwide, hence the interest of the scientific community to explore this alternative as an energy source.

Solar radiation "allows us to be energetically self-sufficient, because we wouldn't depend on finding non-renewable energy deposits" and we could avoid environmental problems such as the climatic change and acid rain, detailed Dr. Fuentes.

Scientists have used photovoltaic cells for more than six decades, first using silica and then thin film, but both the investment and the generated energy are expensive, and so they cannot compete with non-renewable energies.

As an example, she pointed out that in 2014, when using fossil fuels, the kilowatt (Kw) cost around 16 pesos and with photovoltaic cells, the price of one Kw was five times more expensive, it ranged from 80 to 100 pesos. The challenge was to diminish costs.

In collaboration with Dr. Tzarara López Luke, from the Reseaarch in Optics Center (CIO for its acronym in Spanish), Dr. Rosalba Fuentes develop hybrid photovoltaic cells that combine organic and inorganic materials with more accessible prices, which opens the possibility that in a future we can have economic options, stated the UG researcher.

Dr. Fuentes mentioned that her proposal is to use sensitized cells with colorants, also known as Graetzel cells, in which the colorant absorbs the solar energy and generates electricity, but it also regenerates, therefore is a renewable energy source.

Even when sensitized cells with colorants have less efficiency that the ones from silica, they compete in costs being much cheaper and easier to produce, hence, this project has great potential, stated the researcher.

University's professor revealed that even when in Mexico, the use of photovoltaic cells is not very common, in European countries --like Germany—big part of the energetic needs are satisfied by suing solar radiation, hence the importance that UG carries out these kind of projects.

The CIO and the University of Guanajuato fund this project through an inter-institutional summon that has benefited the project three times.
Inset:

• According with the Secretary of Energy, Mexico has the goal that by 2024, 35% of the electricity produced in the country comes from clean sources.
• Among the renewable energies, photovoltaic solar has one of the best perspectives for its growth because of the geographic location of the country that allows the development of these projects.