Concentrated Solar Startup Sets a New Efficiency Record

[n2doc]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2012
BY KEVIN BULLIS

Semprius, a startup that makes miniscule solar cells capable of capturing concentrated sunlight without costly cooling systems, announced this week that it had made the world's most efficient solar panel.

The company's solar panels use tiny solar cells made of gallium arsenide—the record-breaking solar module contains hundreds of such solar cells, each about the width of a line drawn by a ball-point pen, arranged under lenses that concentrate sunlight 1,100 times.

Gallium arsenide is far better at absorbing sunlight than silicon, the material used in most solar cells, but it's also more expensive. Furthermore, although concentrated solar modules use less semiconducting material, they usually require expensive optics, cooling systems, and tracking systems to keep them aimed at the sun. Semprius's microscaled solar cells are inherently much better at dissipating heat, making them cheaper.

Semprius's modules have another advantage: whereas a silicon solar cell only efficiently absorbs a narrow band of sunlight, the solar cells in this module are made of three layers of gallium arsenide, each modified to convert a different part of the solar spectrum into electricity.

Tests by a third-party certified the efficiency of Semprius's solar panel at 33.9 percent, marking the first time any solar module has been able to convert more than one-third of the sunlight that falls on it into electricity. Conventional silicon solar panels typically convert less than 15 percent of light into electricity, and the record for a silicon solar panel is 22.9 percent. The previous record for any solar panel was 32 percent, Semprius says.

more

http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/39624/?p1=A1

[OKIsItJustMe]

1. See also…

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1127948

[n2doc]

2. I know how you really like pointing out how you have posted first

But that was a different article.

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Believe it or not

I actually post "See also..." messages for related topics.

(i.e. I post "See also..." for other people's threads. Ex. http://www.democraticunderground.com/11275499#post3 )