40% Efficient Solar Cells: They Are Being Used Back On Earth
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 04.10.07
In December last year, a company called Spectrolab has achieved a new world record in solar cell efficiency. By using concentrated sunlight, Spectrolab demonstrated the ability of a photovoltaic cell to convert 40.7% of the sun’s energy into electricity. By contrast, regular solar cells are 12 - 20% efficient. Multijunction solar cells are credited with helping scientists gather much more data than expected on Mars by dramatically extending the extraterrestrial lifetimes of the Spirit and Opportunity space rovers. But they were initially designed for earthbound applications. After proving themselves in space, the high-efficiency cells are finally becoming cost-effective for generating renewable energy back on Earth.
Multijunction cells perform at higher efficiencies than conventional single-junction silicon solar cells, because they convert more of the solar spectrum into energy by breaking it up into chunks. For example, the first layer of Spectrolab's record-breaking triple-junction cell is composed of gallium indium phosphide, which converts short-wavelength portions of the spectrum, such as blue and UV. The second layer, made of gallium arsenide, captures the middle part of the spectrum. The third germanium layer does a good job with IR light.
“This solar cell performance is the highest efficiency level any photovoltaic device has ever achieved,” said Dr. David Lillington, president of Spectrolab. “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.”
The inventors of the multijunction solar cells were also recently award a $1 million prize.
See also: New World Record for Solar Cell Technology
Via: Environmental Science & Technology and Sustainable Design
So, what are the wattages?
I'm getting really tired of hearing about all the great new solar stuff that is just a few years away. I've been hearing that same tune for years now. I think it is time to put up or shut up.
Not only would I like to see a better credit for fitting your house with solar energy, but you should get a credit too for selling a house with solar energy. With all the investors out there, I think this would speed up the process.
Anyone has an idea if you use these type of panels with the type of batteries the killa cylce uses, what kind of solar power system you could have? Also, how much are these types of products.
Thnx
I'm still waiting for these words to be used in the same paragraph when it comes to solar cell design.
Quantum dotting, Multi-junction, solar concentrating, and One way glass.
Once these words are used then i will know we are doing all we can to reduce our dependency on Oil, coal, and Natural gas and reducing our green house gases.
D~W
Michael,
KillaCycle needs power density, and solar systems need energy density. Good old deep cycle lead acid batteries are a much better (and cheaper) solution for solar energy storage, and have decades of track record to back it up.
Anyone know how much the raw material cost relates to the total cost of a solar cell?
Solar cells are made from scrap semiconductor wafers (what computer chips are made of) for the most part, and I recently read an article that stated the demand has caused prices to go up to nearly $15 per wafer, but did not state if it was for 6" or 8" wafers. I suppose with a little more information somebody could calculate this. Efficiency only matters if your tight for space (sailboat or really small roof) or if the bare silicon wafer is the dominant cost.
I have tried unsuccesfully to contact suncube owners Greenandgold energy and to dat e no reply. believe they are not into production and can not support claims just yet.
Mike says: "I'm getting really tired of hearing about all the great new solar stuff that is just a few years away. I've been hearing that same tune for years now. I think it is time to put up or shut up."
I agree. You should shut up.
dear sir,
I am a son of a farmer.we are having lot of problems for power supply so i desided to design a solar pannel power supply for the motor we are using to supply water.the mator we are using is 5hp 3 phase motor.i foud out that it is very difficult to supply such a huse power through pannels.I planned to connect the pannels to the batteries`and take the supply from battery to an inverter.From there to the mator but is it possible to do such a derign for that motor.please help me .
P.G.R.chowdary,
navanagar colony,
b/2,siil campus post,
palovancha,khammam dist,
andhrapradesh,
INDIA.
thanking you,
yours sincerly,
chowdary
Is it right to say that it converts "40.7% of the sun's energy into electricity"?
This seems to imply that you can get twice as much electricity from it as a 20% efficient cell.
But it uses a concentrator, so the real efficiency also depends on the relative areas of the concentrator and the cell.
It converts 40.7% of the energy that is focused on it, but because it uses a concentrator that doesn't mean you are going to get more energy from it.
For example, if the area of the concentrator has to be twice the area of the cell, then you would still get the same amount of electricity as if you had a cell that was only 20% efficient but could cover the whole area, instead of only half the area.
I've read that more energy falls on the earth in one hour than is consumed by the whole planet in a year. It isn't so much efficiency that is the show-stopper. It is cost.
I'm more impressed by the recent developments at a New Zealand university using different dyes for conversion...this promises to get the cost of down to where it can compete with coal or nuclear...see here
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/new_zealand_solar.php
A very impressive technology, a few details about it though.
1. the production cells are only 35% efficient
2. to get 35% you need to push 500 suns at it, imagine a concave mirror or lots of itty bitty mirrors pointing at one itty bitty solar cell, this setup also has to track the sun
3. do you get hot on a clear day in mid summer? multiply times 500 and you get an idea of the beating these cells take
4. you can buy the cells now -- minimum purchase for the 'you assemble option' is 5k
still hecka cool and several companies are working on assembling these cells into production systems
I'm waiting for the day the solar power will be the first source of energy for the planet. Still waiting... :)
Yes, things take time to be developed.
You'll know it's time to get into solar panels when the solar panel factory is powered by their cells on their roof ! As it is now, it's a net loss if you figure energy to make the cells, transport, and install. BUT,the day is coming...
I am fascinated by the advances in solar technology. Yes, I know it can be frustrating waiting for these things to hit the mass market, but at least we know they are out there and will eventually ramp up production of them.
I wonder how these new panels do in low light areas like the Puget Sound where we have a lot of cloudy days? One would hope that with the spectrum breakdown mentioned in the article that there would be a gain over the panels available today. Every bit helps.
I saw some people mentioning selling houses with solar panels and such. I think that's a great idea, but with many Home Owners Associations not even allowing solar panels on the roof of your own home or on your grounds, it's going to be an uphill battle - that I seriously hope solar wins.
how much energy is needed to make these cells? do they run long enough at all to get out the energy invested?
"how much energy is needed to make these cells? do they run long enough at all to get out the energy invested?"
This should be no problem at all. Energy payback with regular solar panels (~16% efficient) is a few years, and they usually last for decades. And with time, we're getting better and better at using less energy and materials to make solar panels (which is a big part of why they cost a fraction of what they used to cost), so that payback is getting even better.
With 40% efficient panels, I'd imagine the payback would be very short (not to mention that solar panels, unlike most of the things we produce, *do* have a payback at some point! If we stop producing things, solar panels will be at the very bottom of the list of things that aren't worth making).
"I am fascinated by the advances in solar technology. Yes, I know it can be frustrating waiting for these things to hit the mass market, but at least we know they are out there and will eventually ramp up production of them. "
Yeah, stuff that isn't available will ALWAYS be announced first. A few years ago I'm sure people were frustrated not to be able to get 18% efficient panels, or panels for the prices we have now, or whatever.
Mike says: "I'm getting really tired of hearing about all the great new solar stuff that is just a few years away. I've been hearing that same tune for years now. I think it is time to put up or shut up."
Solar is now genuinely paying its way for off-grid applications (even urban ones like parking-meters), even here in cloudy Limey-Land. That simply wasn't happening a few years ago. So there /has/ been some progress.
And you don't have to live on a boat to have area constraints...a street of terraced houses on a small cloudy island will do just as well! The PV that use the blue half of the spectrum really come into their own in a climate like ours (see any info from project PV-Compare for the numbers).
A lot of these comments are off beam. Firstly Spectrolab is owned by Boeing and are not likely to announce fluff. The multilayer cells were developed in cooperation with the NREL. These expensive cells are not for domestic roofs but for concentrators. Real application is on the way. A good example is this 154 MW project in Victoria, Australia at http://www.solarsystems.com.au/154MWVictorianProject.html.
Answer this question;
What % of solar energy is being used todayin Canada?
What about the future?
I am expectiing an answer by 42 hundred hours of the clock that a you.
Great idea to actually ENCOURAGE the use of PV panels both in new homes and retro-fitting older homes. You're right. Builders and home owners SHOULD be encoraged to do this and get tax breaks etc but sadly the reverse is usually true.
The morons who "rule" (politicians on ALL levels) see a property that has been improved with PV panels and they assess the building as more valuable than the rest so they RAISE the ASSESSMENT and the owner ends up paying higher taxes than neighbors. Of course this factors negatively when selling the home too.
As long as we have idiots running governments who can't come close to imagining the future without oil then PV will be expensive and generally DIScouraged from being used by the average citizen. Sad commentary on how things run these days but way too true for almost ALL the Western world.
Gallium indium phosphide, gallium arsenide, and germanium, sound a bit poisonous. How do we manage this stuff? Can it be gathered up, at the end of it's useful life, for reuse or disposal? What about hurricanes? or desert storms?
Concentrators, eh? Well, darn! I was hoping for something nice for the roof or windows. It ought to help, in managing the stuff though,
It's nice to hear of promising technologies coming along. A couple or few, decades ago, it was just science fiction.
""I am fascinated by the advances in solar technology. Yes, I know it can be frustrating waiting for these things to hit the mass market, but at least we know they are out there and will eventually ramp up production of them. "
Sorry, but that's just not true, these cells may never be in production and it's unlikely you'll ever see such a product at Home Depot. Like Scott said above... I too am sick and tired of reading articles about all these big breakthroughs that amount to exactly squat. Please, no more articles on research projects in a lab that will never become actual products.
We've been reading about breakthroughs like this for YEARS and yet the only solar products you can actually buy are the same old stuff. I suspect that such announcements are meant to boost the companies stock value and that's about it.
Until you can buy it at WalMart it's still science fiction, or rather marketing fiction.
It seems that the public must demonstrate in order for the government to meet our demands. I as well as many of you support USA technology and now the rest of the world is developing solar technology to the point that efficiency has doubled. I live in Tampa Fl, in a 39 yr old single story 1500sf block house. I expect my peak elect bill to now be about $130.00. I’ve cut my elect bill by 40%, making my home more efficient, with new lights, attic insulation, power stabilizer, LOe windows, hot water timer, programmable A/C thermostat and solar attic fans. This has been a 3 year process because of limited income, but worth the effort. Anyone can do it, just make it a priority.
I’m highly disappointed that the government doesn’t increase the residential rebate for solar energy and invest in the technology that can assist us to lower our dependency on foreign oil. The public can assist by lowering our own dependency. Our country is founded by the spirit of competition and invention. I see citizens doing their part, and the government being held hostage by lobbyist.
Cars and trucks are made to run at speeds of over 110mph and our speed limit is set at 70mph. I’m quite certain an 8 or 10 speed transmission could increase efficiency. May 25th 2008, Tampa Fl, regular gas is $3.94.
I’m amazed at how much money (billions) goes to other countries for all kinds of reasons, and we can’t repair and prevent disasters at home. How far could 1 billion dollars in grants go towards assisting USA residents become less dependant on oil?
Who is running this country? What ever happened to “of the people, by the people, for the people”?
Ask yourself, who is accountable?
"Sorry, but that's just not true, these cells may never be in production and it's unlikely you'll ever see such a product at Home Depot. Like Scott said above... I too am sick and tired of reading articles about all these big breakthroughs that amount to exactly squat. Please, no more articles on research projects in a lab that will never become actual products"
This is not just research, this type of solar cell is now in volume production by several companies inclucing Emcore and Spectralab in the US. People have to risk huge amounts of time and money to invent, develop, prove out and then finance massive installations to bring the benefits of such technology to the masses. Deploying these technologies at the necessary scale is a huge endeavor that will span this whole century. Despite the nay sayers Solar PV is happening and it will become vital to keep our planet habitable for the long term.
At the end of 2007, China alone had established solar panel manufacturing capacity of about 4.5 GW peak per year and this is doubling every year. Most of the installations are going into Europe where they have established subsidies for solar power feed into the electricity grid. Using already developed technology, in about 4-6 years you can expect the cost of solar electricity to be comparable to electricity from the grid - this could happen sooner if fossil fuel prices keep rising. After that, solar electric power will be cheaper than other sources and the installation rate will truly take off.
Once installed, solar cells will provide electricity reliably for 25 to 40 years. The energy payback is less than two years for most solar photovoltaic installations so this is definitely a net energy gain technology.
The US has some of the most innovative solar companies in the world. Hopefully the next president & congress will establish the appropriate incentives that will allow us to catch up to Europe in deployment of this technology and start to enjoy the long term benefits of this endless supply of energy.
Great to hear that higher efficiency modules are starting to make more financial sense.
Doing away with energy subsidies and clearing the smoke as to how much goes to corrupt oil and dirty coal would reveal the true cost of energy. Just wait until all the utility companies begin to renegotiate their contracts with dirty energy! Wind and solar will be a bargain in no time.