Scientists may be able to boost the efficiency of solar panels by converting green light to blue.

According to research from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany, this involves a complicated scientific process called upconversion in which low energy green light photons are manipulated and fused together, creating blue light photons. Blue light has a shorter wavelength and yields more energy, which means solar panels can create more electricity from them.

One of the efficiency limitations of solar panels is that they can only use photons with a certain minimum energy to generate power, so this will make a big difference.

“This is very important for photovoltaics applications,” said Professor Bryce Richards, Director of the Institute of Microstructure Technology, another research body in the field.

The result is to be published in the Advanced Materials journal and will open up new opportunities not only for solar cells but also LED technologies.