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Boeing Spectrolab terrestrial solar cell surpasses
40% efficiency
Spectrolab, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Boeing, has achieved a new world
record in terrestrial concentrator solar cell
efficiency. Using concentrated sunlight, Spectrolab
demonstrated the ability of a photovoltaic cell to
convert
40.7
%
percent of received solar energy into electricity.
The U.S. Department of
Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in
Golden, Colo., verified the
milestone last month.
"This solar cell
performance is the highest efficiency level any
photovoltaic device has ever achieved," said
Spectrolab President David Lillington. "The
terrestrial cell we have developed uses the same
technology base as our space-based cells. So, once
qualified, they can be manufactured in very high
volumes with minimal impact to production flow."
Spectrolab officials
say that high-efficiency multijunction cells have a
significant advantage over conventional silicon
cells in concentrator systems because fewer solar
cells are required to achieve the same power output.
This technology is expected to continue to
dramatically reduce the cost of generating
electricity from solar energy, as well as the cost
of materials used in high-power space satellites and
terrestrial applications.
"These results are
particularly encouraging since they were achieved
using a new class of metamorphic semiconductor
materials, allowing much greater freedom in
multijunction cell design for optimal conversion of
the solar spectrum," said Spectrolab's Richard King,
principal investigator of the high-efficiency solar
cell research and development effort. "The excellent
performance of these materials hints at still higher
efficiency in future solar cells."
Spectrolab is reducing
the cost of solar cell production through research
investments and is working with several domestic and
international solar concentrator manufacturers on
clean, renewable solar energy solutions. Currently,
Spectrolab's terrestrial concentrator cells are
generating power in a 33-kilowatt full-scale
concentrator system in the Australian desert. The
company recently signed multimillion dollar
contracts for its high-efficiency concentrator cells
and is anticipating several new contracts in the
next few months.
Development of the
high-efficiency concentrator cell technology was
funded by the NREL's High Performance Photovoltaics
program and Spectrolab. |