Today, the world is grappling with more than just the climate crisis, and yet even now, in the face of a global pandemic, scientists are marching on with renewable solutions.
现在全世界要应对的不只有气候危机。即使现在全球面临疫情，科学家也在推进可再生能源解决方案。
Just this month, no less than three records have been broken in solar panel efficiency. The first and the second were achieved by scientists in the United States at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
就在本月，在太阳能电池板效率方面有多达三项纪录被打破了。前两项纪录是国家可再生能源实验室的美国科学家打破的。
Their unique "six-junction" solar cell has unprecedented energy conversion, turning intensified light into electricity at 47.1 percent efficiency - the most efficient in the world under concentrated light conditions. This record beat the previous contender established just a couple of years ago by one percent.
他们独特的“六结”太阳能电池能进行前所未有的能量转换，强光与电能的转换效率是47.1%，是聚光条件下的全球最高效率。这个纪录比几年前的纪录高出一个百分点。
"This device really demonstrates the extraordinary potential of multijunction solar cells," says John Geisz who works at NREL.
在国家可再生能源实验室工作的John Geisz说：“这个设备真的展示了多结太阳能电池的非凡潜力。”
The achievement was helped by concentrating sunlight until it was a sizzling 143 times more intense. But even under the illumination of a single Sun, the solar cell is better than any other.
这是通过聚光使光照强度达到143倍实现的。但即使在不聚光的情况下，这种太阳能电池也比其他的要好。
This is the second record broken - the team tested another version of their six-junction cell without concentrating the light, and achieved an unprecedented 39.2 percent efficiency.
下面说说第二项被打破的记录，该团队在不聚光的情况下测试了另一种六结太阳能电池，效率达到了前所未有的39.2%。
Essentially this means that even more of the Sun's energy can now be converted into electricity.
基本上这就意味着现在有更多的太阳能可以被转换成电能了。
The third record broken this month, for instance, was achieved by something called a tandem cell. This is a device, only a few micrometres thick, that combines two different semiconductors, one for the visible parts of the light spectrum and the other for infrared light.
比如本月打破的第三项纪录是利用叠层电池实现的。这个设备只有几微米厚，结合了两种不同的半导体，一种用于光谱的可见部分，另一种用于红外线。
Engineers from the German research centre Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin created a new kind of tandem cell made from stacked silicon and perovskite with a certified efficiency of 24.16 percent.
德国研究中心亥姆霍兹柏林中心的工程师创造了一种新的叠层电池，由硅和钙钛矿叠层制成，认证效率为24.16%。
