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Record Power from Solar Cell

John P.

By

Solar Panel

December 5, 2006

New World Record Achieved in Solar Cell Technology
New Solar Cell Breaks the “40 Percent Efficient” Sunlight-to-Electricity Barrier

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner today announced that with DOE funding, a concentrator solar cell produced by Boeing-Spectrolab has recently achieved a world-record conversion efficiency of 40.7 percent, establishing a new milestone in sunlight-to-electricity performance. This breakthrough may lead to systems with an installation cost of only $3 per watt, producing electricity at a cost of 8-10 cents per kilowatt/hour, making solar electricity a more cost-competitive and integral part of our nation’s energy mix.

“Reaching this milestone heralds a great achievement for the Department of Energy and for solar energy engineering worldwide,” Assistant Secretary Karsner said. “We are eager to see this accomplishment translate into the marketplace as soon as possible, which has the potential to help reduce our nation’s reliance on imported oil and increase our energy security.”

Attaining a 40 percent efficient concentrating solar cell means having another technology pathway for producing cost-effective solar electricity. Almost all of today’s solar cell modules do not concentrate sunlight but use only what the sun produces naturally, what researchers call “one sun insolation,” which achieves an efficiency of 12 to 18 percent. However, by using an optical concentrator, sunlight intensity can be increased, squeezing more electricity out of a single solar cell.

The 40.7 percent cell was developed using a unique structure called a multi-junction solar cell. This type of cell achieves a higher efficiency by capturing more of the solar spectrum. In a multi-junction cell, individual cells are made of layers, where each layer captures part of the sunlight passing through the cell. This allows the cell to get more energy from the sun’s light.

For the past two decades researchers have tried to break the “40 percent efficient” barrier on solar cell devices. In the early 1980s, DOE began researching what are known as “multi-junction gallium arsenide-based solar cell devices,” multi-layered solar cells which converted about 16 percent of the sun’s available energy into electricity. In 1994, DOE’s National Renewable Energy laboratory broke the 30 percent barrier, which attracted interest from the space industry. Most satellites today use these multi-junction cells.

Reaching 40 percent efficiency helps further President Bush’s Solar America Initiative (SAI) goals, which aims to win nationwide acceptance of clean solar energy technologies by 2015. By then, it is intended that America will have enough solar energy systems installed to provide power to one to two million homes, at a cost of 5 to 10 cents per kilowatt/hour. The SAI is also key component of President Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative, which provides a 22 percent increase in research and development funding at DOE and seeks to reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil by changing the way we power our cars, homes and businesses.

For more information, visit the Solar America Initiative website at: http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar/solar_america/.

Comments

  1. Carol,

    I’m sorry you are having difficulty with viewing the site. That is the first report I’ve had of it’s kind. (Thanks for the compliment by the way!)

    Could you tell me a little information about your computer so I can try to duplicate the problem? Are you using a PC, or a Mac? Which Web browser are you using, and if you know the resolution of your monitor it would be quite helpful.

    Several people are using my theme, so if there are issues I’d like to fix them for everyone’s benefit.

    Thanks,

    John

    PS – If you think this topic is cool, wait till you see my post that comes out in about 2 hours! It’s going to show how pure energy can be extracted from seawater! :-)

  2. Something is wrong with either my computer or your site. Your type has been transposed with one, two, or three lines on top of each other. Hope it is me and not you because your subject is electrifying.

    I am hoping for the day when the roofs of homes and cars can be coated with photovoltaic cells and then shrink wrapped with weather protection so that we can get
    out from under this oil dependency while raising the standard of living for the world without destroying our ecosystems.

  4. This development of the 40.7% concentrator cell is major step to achieving cost-effective solar systems, not just because of the world record conversion efficiency, but also because it brings attention to the fact we should focus on concentrators and not flat plate PV.

    Our company uses the currently available Spectrolab 37.3% efficient solar cells. These cells were tested under laboratory conditions using 25° C., but we use them under actual field conditions at 60° C. They operate more efficiently at lower temperatures.

    At 500X concentration, we use an active cooling system and acquire the thermal energy as a second profit center. The technology for these concentrator cells were funded by the DOE (us), so the technology is free for anyone to use and develop. Besides Spectrolab, the other company producing these high efficiency cells is Emore Corporation.

    In volume production of 800 kWs, our cost to install is $4.00/watt (using low labor rates). If we could manufacture our own cells or experience very large production volumes, then it would be very easy to reduce installed costs to less than $3.00/watt. Right now, the solar cell itself represents from $.54 to $1.34/watt of the total system cost depending upon the volume purchased.

    This is a wonderful development and our current total PV/thermal system conversion rate of 60% will only get better as additional development of this concentrator cell increases.