Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. (OTC: SANYY) announced on Saturday that the company has broken its own record for crystalline solar cell conversion efficiency in Sanyo’s HIT solar panel range.
Sanyo HIT solar panels already had the highest efficiency of any solar panel for the home solar power market. With recent refinements, the company says it has achieved a conversion efficiency of 23.0%; that is, 23% of sunlight hitting the panel cells can be converted to electricity.
This represents the first time that a photovoltaic manufacturer has broken through the 23% mark in conversion efficiency at the research level for practical-sized solar cells.
The Sanyo HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar panel is constructed of a thin monocrystalline silicon wafer encased in ultra-thin amorphous silicon layers. This hybrid technology allows for excellent performance at high temperatures compared to conventional silicon solar cells.
To gain the additional conversion efficiency improvements, Sanyo refined the HIT solar cell junction through developing a technology for depositing a higher quality a-Si (amorphous silicon) layer over the c-Si (crystalline silicon) substrate while protecting the c-Si surface from being damaged. The company also developed know-how to reduce optical absorption loss in both the a-Si layer and transparent conductive layer.
Additionally, lower-resistance electrode material for use in the grid electrode and a higher-aspect ratio through improving printing technology has led to a success in reduction of resistance loss when an electric current flows through.
Aside from the best conversion efficiency available for solar farms; commercial and residential solar power systems, Sanyo HIT solar panels also offer a smaller footprint, allowing more capacity within a limited area such as a rooftop. The panels offer an added benefit of being a “greener” solar module through the use of less silicon material.
