Solar Cells Get to 20% Conversion Efficiency September 23, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Methods & Strategies, Energy Efficiency, Entrepreneuring, Sustainability , add a commentI am becoming a big fan of solar power as it begins the long march toward parity with current power supplies — I would love to get off the Commonwealth Edison grid and not have to pay that big electricity bill every month.
So I was excited to see today that Suniva Inc. announced that its R&D team has developed several silicon solar cells in its lab with more than 20% conversion efficiencies using its patented combination of cell designs and screen printing technologies.
“Our R&D team already has a solid roadmap in place to further increase our efficiencies. We are excited about Suniva’s continued momentum on the path to make solar electricity cost-competitive with conventional grid electricity.” — Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi, Founder and CTO, Suniva
These high efficiency milestones have been verified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The efficiency achievement closely follows Suniva’s two recent customer agreements with Germany’s Solon AG and India’s Titan Energy Systems Ltd, together worth approximately US $1 billion. “This demonstrates that Suniva’s advanced technologies in diffusion, surface passivation and contacts can increase conversion efficiency while reducing processing time and maintaining low cell cost,” said Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi, Suniva’s founder and CTO. “Our R&D team already has a solid roadmap in place to further increase our efficiencies. We are excited about Suniva’s continued momentum on the path to make solar electricity cost-competitive with conventional grid electricity.”
