New World Record for Solar Cell Technology
by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg, St. Louis, MO on 12. 7.06
The US Department of Energy announced on Tuesday that a project it funded had set a new world's record for solar cell efficiency. According to DOE's press release,
...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.Let's give this some context:
- According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Power Technologies Energy Data Book, Fourth Edition, concentrator solar technologies "...produce electricity at solar-to-electric efficiencies for the system of up to 30%." In the best case scenario for cells used with this technology, the Data Book reports efficiencies of 27-39%, with pre-commercial models averaging 15-24%.
- A post at Slashdot points to a German site that shows where to best place solar sites for matching the world's energy consumption (2003 figures) based on an 8% efficiency rate. The Slashdot writer notes "At 40% efficiency, it looks like a square 265 miles on a side in the American southwest would do it.
Photo credit: Rex Windom and NREL/DOE
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The multi junction solar PV cell described in the article looks like a flat panel, not the focused array used in the Treehugger photo.
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Writer's note: No photo accompanied the news, so I went for the general idea... I'll be happy to change it to something more accurate.
Correct, that looks like a sterling energy dish. http://www.stirlingenergy.com/
Jeff, for a better image do a google image search for photovoltaic.
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Writer's note: Thanks, Johann!
Looks like they would be easier to deploy than Stirling engines but what about their longevity?
Sincer there are no moving parts but the sun tracker, this photovoltaic system should have comparable longevity with the stirling engine systems, unless the constant daily exposure to concentrated sunlight degrades the cells.
And BTW, the article does say that they use solar concentrators. That's part of the reason the thing is so efficient. Using concentrators lets you use less of the expensive photovoltaics.
I wonder if we could make a three layer spray-on solar that would approach the efficiency of this?