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.
澳大利亚的科学家们周一表示，他们在提高太阳能电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.
据新南威尔士大学，研究者们能将照射在面板上超40%的阳光转化为电能，这是世界的先例。

"This is the highest efficiency ever reported for sunlight conversion into electricity," UNSW Professor Martin Green said in a statement.
新南威尔士大学的教授MartinGreen 在一份声明中说，“这是所有获报道的将太阳能转换为电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."
“我们使用的是商用太阳能电池板，但我们使用的方式有所不同，这些提升的效益很快将被应用到太阳能行业”。
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对法新社说，传统使用方式将转化率控制在了33%，而更新的技术能将阳光分散在4块不同的电池板上，这样就提高了转换水平。
The record efficiency level was achieved intests in Sydney and replicated at the United Statesgovernment's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the university said.
该大学表示，他们在悉尼测验的时候获得了创下记录的效率等级，在美国国家可再生能源实验室再次获得了这一记录。
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希望这项技术最终将可以被应用到太阳能电池板并出现在家家户户的屋顶上，因为目前人们使用的太阳能电池板转化效率只有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.
他对法新社说，“你们家屋顶安装的太阳能电池板当前只有单块电池板，但终将会被几块不同的电池板替代。。。而这些电池板能将转化效率提升到这个水平”。
He was confident that in a decade solar-generated electricity would be cheaper than that produced by coal.
他自信地表示，十年后，利用太阳能发电的成本将低于煤炭发电的成本。