Sep
24
New Record Solar Cell Efficiency at 44.7 Percent
September 24, 2013 | Leave a Comment
The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin jointly announced achieving a new world record for solar cell efficiency. Using a new solar cell structure with four solar subcells the team surpassed all the competition after only over three years of research. The new record efficiency of 44.7% was measured at a concentration of 297 suns.
Of great interest is that 44.7% of the solar spectrum’s energy, from ultraviolet through to the infrared, is converted into electrical energy. This is a major step towards reducing further the costs of solar electricity and continues to show the way to the 50% efficiency level.
In May 2013, the German-French team of Fraunhofer ISE, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin announced a solar cell with 43.6% efficiency. Building on this result, further intensive research work and optimization steps led to the present efficiency of 44.7%.
World Record Stacked Subcell Photo Voltaic Solar Cell. Click image for the largest view.
The new solar cells are used in concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), a technology which achieves more than twice the efficiency of conventional photo voltaic power plants in sun-rich locations. The terrestrial use of so-called III-V multi-junction solar cells, which originally came from space technology, has led to the highest efficiencies for the conversion of sunlight to electricity.
In this multi-junction solar cell, several cells made out of different III-V semiconductor materials are stacked on top of each other. The single subcells absorb different wavelength ranges of the solar spectrum.
Frank Dimroth, Department Head and Project Leader in charge of this development work at Fraunhofer ISE said, “We are incredibly proud of our team which has been working now for three years on this four-junction solar. This four-junction solar cell contains our collected expertise in this area over many years. Besides improved materials and optimization of the structure, a new procedure called wafer-bonding plays a central role. With this technology, we are able to connect two semiconductor crystals, which otherwise cannot be grown on top of each other with high crystal quality. In this way we can produce the optimal semiconductor combination to create the highest efficiency solar cells.”
André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, Soitec’s Chairman and CEO expands with, “This world record increasing our efficiency level by more than 1 point in less than 4 months demonstrates the extreme potential of our four-junction solar cell design which relies on Soitec bonding techniques and expertise. It confirms the acceleration of the roadmap towards higher efficiencies, which represents a key contributor to competitiveness of our own CPV systems. We are very proud of this achievement, a demonstration of a very successful collaboration.”
Leti CEO Laurent Malier adds, “This new record value reinforces the credibility of the direct semiconductor bonding approaches that is developed in the frame of our collaboration with Soitec and Fraunhofer ISE. We are very proud of this new result, confirming the broad path that exists in solar technologies for advanced III-V semiconductor processing.”
The concentrator modules are produced by Soitec, started in 2005 under the name Concentrix Solar, a spin-off of Fraunhofer ISE. Their highly efficient technology is already at work employed in solar power plants located in sun-rich regions with a high percentage of direct radiation. Soitec has CPV installations in 18 different countries including Italy, France, South Africa and California.
Catching up to these guys is going to be a very challenging task. Keeping up is even more so.
Comments
Feedburner
Reddit
Stumbleupon
