Researchers working on solar panels worldwide now consistently breach the 30 percent energy conversion mark, once considered an important threshold for the technology.

This week alone, two research groups published results showcasing energy conversion efficiencies of 32.5 percent and 31.25 percent, respectively, when using tandem cells.

LONGi, the China-based manufacturer of solar cells, also reported an energy conversion efficiency of 33.5 percent last month.

This significant advance for the technology is expected to make green energy more affordable in the near future.

Solar is already a cost-effective method for harnessing renewable energy and is deployed across large parts of the planet in a bid to move away from fossil fuels.

Countries like China are also co-adopting the technology with other renewable energy approaches, such as hydel power to tide over the intermittency issues.

Earlier this year, a Czech utility company was forced to unplug solar panels at its energy farm after the panels produced more energy than the grid could handle.

Nevertheless, traditional solar panels can convert less than a third of incident light (the light that falls onto the panel) into energy, and scientists have been working to improve these numbers.

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