Green Options » solar efficiency

Sharp Nails a Record 35.8% Solar Conversion Efficiency

Tina Casey — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 14:10:46 +0000

Sharp Corporation has just announced that it has achieved the world’s highest solar cell conversion efficiency using a compound layered design based on the technology used in the solar cells that power space satellites. Mindful of the link between sustainable energy and the future market for consumer electronics, Sharp has been aggressively pursuing solar efficiency improvements that lend themselves to commercial application.

Instead of silicon, compound solar cells use two or more photo-absorption layers composed of different elements. The trick is to find materials that generate the most current with the least waste. Sharp’s innovation is a proprietary technology that enables it to produce a high-efficiency crystalline compound, InGaAs (indium-gallium-arsenide), which boosted the efficiency of Sharp’s previous cells from 31.5% to 35.8%.

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Solarmer Breaks Plastic Solar Cell Efficiency World Record, Again

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 19:37:57 +0000

Solarmer Energy broke the world record for plastic cell efficiency last year. Now, they’ve just broken it again.

The new efficiency record is 7.6% and it breaks 7% for the first time.

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New World Record in Solar Power Efficiency

Zachary Shahan — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:21:34 +0000

A Chinese company set a new world record in solar power efficiency this week. According to the company, Suntech Power Holdings, they achieved a 15.6% conversion efficiency on “a commercial grade multi-crystalline silicon PV module.” This breaks a 15-year-old world record set by US company Sandia National Labs.

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XeroCoat Boosts Thin Film Solar Efficiency, Lowers Costs with New Coatings

Tina Casey — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:57:49 +0000

Dirt and reflection are no friends to thin film solar panel efficiency, and XeroCoat Inc. is on the way to solving both problems with a set of patented solar coatings that keep solar modules cleaner while cutting down on reflection. The Redwood City-based company has just won a U.S. Department of Energy grant to develop a method for applying its anti-reflective coating directly onto assembled thin film modules. A XeroCoat subsidiary is also working on a complementary coating that resists soil and dust, under a grant from the Australian government. Along with lowering production costs and boosting efficiency, the coatings could substantially reduce maintenance costs for solar energy, bringing it closer to true cost-competitiveness with coal and other non-renewable fuels.

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Rensselaer Researchers Nano-Engineer Solar to ‘Near Perfect’ Efficiency

Susan Kraemer — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:30:07 +0000

Nano-engineering students at Rensselaer have created a solar power game-changer: more than 96% absorption of sunlight from all angles, from sunrise to sunset.

The two biggest efficiency hurdles for solar efficiency have been:

1. Solar cells absorb only part of the light spectrum.
2. The sun always moves in relation to the panel.

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