National Renewable Energy Lab Sets Record for Solar Cell Efficiency

By Ariel Schwartz This article was originally posted on CleanTechnica, part of the Green Options Media Blog Network. Visit CleanTechnica for more clean tech news.

solar cells

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory in the United States has announced that a new device developed by its scientists can convert 40.8 percent of light that hits it into electricity. This bests the previous record of 40.7 percent set by a different organization.

According to NREL spokesman George Douglas, the new device is both thinner and lighter than the previous model, which used a germanium wafer.

This solar cell, however, uses gallium indium phosphide and gallium indium arsenide to split light into 3 parts, each of which are then absorbed by the cell’s 3 layers.

The lab says that the new solar cell is an excellent candidate for concentrated photovoltaic arrays as well as space satellites.

While I haven’t seen anything mentioned about possible pricing, I can only assume that this technology will be unaffordable for most businesses and individuals for a long time to come.

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