New Solar Cell Sets Record For Energy Efficiency

Lucas123 writes "After three years of work, German and French researchers have achieved a new world record on converting sunlight to energy through a photovoltaic cell, achieving a 44.7% rate of efficiency, which was measured at a concentration of 297 suns. The efficiency rating means the solar cell collects 44.7% of the sun's spectrum's energy, from ultraviolet to the infrared spectrum, which is converted into electrical energy. The team of researchers said the technology places them on the path to achieving their roadmap of 50% efficiency in solar energy conversion."

Comments

Price dropping, usage growing, rage increasing

[Maxo-Texas]

At cleantechnica site you can see a priced drop of $76/w to under $.74 a watt in only (sorta wish it was .76 a watt for neatness sake, dontcha?)

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/24/solar-powers-massive-price-drop-graph/

You can also see a similar exponential but reverse growth curve off a link from that page.

Elsewhere, I saw solar was projected to generate more energy than the U.S. currently generates by 2050-- and to quintuple from there by 2100.

---

Loved "Mystery Men". On my top 100 list.

Re:Price dropping, usage growing, rage increasing

[Firethorn]

As usual, an XKCD comic applies...

You always have to be careful about extrapolation. What looks like exponential growth is unlikely to stay that way as further order effects come into play.

Well of course

[NoNonAlphaCharsHere]

Sure, the Germans get better solar efficiency, they get a lot more sun.

Re:Well of course

[SternisheFan]

Actually, no they don't. I googled "How much sunlight does Germany get" and after disregarding Fox's disinformation links, I found this:

Germany: Your Unlikely World Leader in Solar Power

germany solar leaderThe average day in Germany is cloudy. In fact, Germans see an average of just over 1500 hours of sunshine per year, a bit less than 64 days worth of sunlight. Needless to say, Germany would be one of the last countries you’d expect to be the overwhelming leader in solar energy production. Yet here it is. Germany alone has half of the world’s solar installations and is the third-largest producer of solar cells. Q-Cells, a German company, recently pulled ahead of Sharp as the world’s largest maker of photovoltaic cells. So how did they do it? How could a dreary country like Germany singlehandedly conquer the solar industry?

To find out, one need look no further than the German government’s aggressive renewable energy incentives. In 2000 the Renewable Energy Sources Act was passed, requiring the country’s utility companies to purchase electricity from solar start-ups at rates higher than retail value. Commonly known as feed-in tariffs, these subsidies made it easy for new solar companies to turn a profit. In fact, their profits were pretty much locked in, and companies raced to get started. That’s how in just four years Germany was already responsible for half of solar electricity generated worldwide.

Now, eight years later the country is still going strong. The progressive law is a broad measure attempting to reduce carbon emissions. The goal is to derive a quarter of its power from renewable sources by 2020. They are already ahead of the 12.5%-by-2010 benchmark set by the European Union. Germany already stands tall with 14.2% of its electricity coming from renewable sources.

And the effect of Germany’s solar leadership has resonated globally. Spain, France, Italy, and Greece have installed similar incentive plans. And U.S. states, led by California, have instituted German-inspired incentives such as net metering.

Link: http://solar.calfinder.com/blog/solar-information/germany-your-unlikely-world-leader-in-solar-power/

Re:Well of course

[Solandri]

Capacity factor for PV solar in the U.S. is about 0.145. That is, if you plop down a 1000 Watt panel angled at your latitude, and measure its power generation for a year, it'll average out to 145 Watts. It incorporates everything - weather, angle of the sun, night, etc. Across the country, it ranges from about 0.185 in the desert southwest, to 0.11 in New England.

From the Wikipedia article, in 2012 Germany had 32.6 GW of installed PV solar capacity, and it generated 28 GWh of electricity. A year is 8766 hours, so that's an average generation rate of 28000 GWh / 8766 h = 3.19 GW. So their PV solar capacity factor is 0.098 (Numerous hits on Google reporting instantaneous generation and generation over 24 hours notwithstanding - those don't matter, only the long-term cyclical average does, a natural cycle of seasons being one year.)

Basically, Germany is a terrible place to install PV solar. The only reason it's viable there is because their green energy initiatives have driven up the cost of their electricity to about $0.34/kWh (vs about $0.20/kWh for France and the UK). Numerous studies put the cost of electricity from PV solar at about 2x-5x the cost from other sources. So normally it wouldn't be cost-effective. But if you raise electricity prices to 3x what it is in the U.S., suddenly PV solar becomes financially viable.

Solar cell efficiency graph

[Gravis Zero]

Here is a graph of solar cell efficiency showing the different kinds of materials used to make them. The typical solar cell is silicon (blue on the graph) and maxes out at 27.6% efficiency.

Re:No mention of economics....

[Gravis Zero]

Multi-junction cells are expensive to produce, using techniques similar to semiconductor device fabrication, usually metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy but on "chip" sizes on the order of centimeters. In cases where outright performance is the only consideration, these cells have become common, they are widely used in satellite applications for instance, where the power-to-weight ratio overwhelms practically every other cost.

Re:Awesome.

[Anonymous Coward]

No. But the Saudis are investing in cloud technology.

Re:The 44.7% efficiency requires 297 suns

[ShanghaiBill]

"...a photovoltaic cell, achieving a 44.7% rate of efficiency, which was measured at a concentration of 297 suns"

This means that they use mirrors to focus the light onto the panel. Since high-efficiency panels tend to be expensive, the more light you can concentrate on it, the better. The fact that it can handle a near 300 fold increase in throughput is a good thing. These are not going to be used on a residential roof flat panel anytime soon.

Re:The 44.7% efficiency requires 297 suns

[rahvin112]

It will take a while for the technology to hit the manufacturers but it will hit panels for satellites first. When you are paying $20k per pound (0.5kg) to put something in space if you can get a higher efficiency with less weight you can pay a LOT more for the panels and still come out ahead.

Re:297 Suns?

[Anonymous Coward]

I do not think pholtovoltaics are limited by the Carnot efficiency, which applies to the conversion of heat to mechanical work in heat engines. The energy stored electrochemically in batteries can exceed the Carnot efficiency, as can fuel cells.

Re:The 44.7% efficiency requires 297 suns

[nbauman]

This means that they use mirrors to focus the light onto the panel.

I know just where to put them.
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/09/03/0157256/building-melts-car

Wrong

[Rujiel]

Do you get your talking points from a PR firm? Did you seriously just list the price of re-shnging your roof as a reason why solar could never be economical? Even if that were true, you need to think outside of the box, brah. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/05/15/caution-wet-solar-power-new-affordable-solar-paint-research/

I find it pretty comic you're listing today's absorption rates as the reason solar "will never" (emphasis on the bolded word) be affordable. What website are you on right now? I wouldn't peg you for a technology enthusiast. Got news for you, bud: technology advances. Solar will become a dominant energy source. It's just a matter of when. You should stop watching cable TV; it's convinced you of silly things, sheltered you in petrol pipe dreams.

Re:So what, nearly 4 watts per square metre?

[jandjmh]

Sunlight at high noon directly overhead is close to 1000 watts per square meter. My neighbor's roof has panels about 2x4 ft (a bit less than a square meter) that are rated at 120 watts output each. Her rooftop array of just a dozen panels provided 100% of her consumption last year, per her net metering annual bill.
It's a very modest sized house, One bedroom, one bath, about 1000 square feet, but it is also a very modest sized array.

Re:The 44.7% efficiency requires 297 suns

[BlackPignouf]

They use Fresnel lenses, not mirrors : http://www.soitec.com/en/technologies/concentrix/components/
PS: I worked with Concentrix (now Soitec). Cool company.