Solar Junction says it has set a new world record for conversion efficiency of a commercial-ready production solar cell.
The developer of high efficiency multi-junction solar cells for the concentrating photovoltaics (CPV) sector says it has attained a 44 percent conversion efficiency at 947 suns; beating its own record set in April last year.
“Breaking our own world record cements Solar Junction as an innovator and leader in the multi-junction cell space,” said Vijit Sabnis, VP Technology at Solar Junction. “We continue to push technological boundaries to further drive CPV costs down.”
Both records were verified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) says the Silicon Valley based company.
The optics of a CPV system act as a magnifying glass, collecting light and projecting it onto a small, highly efficient and very robust solar cell. Multijunction solar cells were originally used to power satellites. CPV systems are most commonly used in medium to large scale solar farms.
A cell conversion efficiency of over 40% translates to an overall system efficiency of more than 28%; much higher than the module efficiency of solar panels used for residential home solar power systems.
Solar Junction is commercialising its proprietary Adjustable Spectrum Lattice Matched (A-SLAM™) multi-junction solar cell architecture, which features “bandgap tunability”, which maximises the amount of absorbed sunlight.
Solar Junction was founded with investment from New Enterprise Associates (NEA). It received additional investment from NEA, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Advanced Technology Ventures (ATV). The company was also a 2010 recipient of a U.S. $3 Million Department of Energy PV Incubator subcontract.
Earlier this year, Solar Junction was the recipient of a $5 million DoE SUNPATH grant, which will allow the company to boost production from 5MW to 40MW production capacity a year and further develop triple junction solar cell technology.
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