World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
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Re: World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
#2"These solar cells are used in concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), a technology which achieves more than twice the efficiency of conventional PV 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 prevailed to realize 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."
If that isn't a reason to be investing in Space, I don't know what is.
"This world record increasing our efficiency level by more than 1 point in less than 4 months..."
I think we may start to see Moore's Law starting to be applied to Solar Cells. Which actually reminds of a chart on the waves of innovation[1] on the Stanford Tech Entrepreneurship course where we are now seeing the tail of IT and computing and beginning of renewable technologies. The same thing can be said about energy density of batteries(According to Tesla batteries).
[1] Page 5 https://d2d6mu5qcvgbk5.cloudfront.net/documents/original/69b...
Re: World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
#3"These solar cells are used in concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), a technology which achieves more than twice the efficiency of conventional PV 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 prevailed to realize highest efficiencies for the conversion of sunlight to electricity. In this multi-junction solar cell, s…
It is indeed interesting, but IIRC most of the funding for satellite launches (R&D for III-V semiconductors) came from intelligence, not NASA.
So, um, thank you, NSA! :P
Re: World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
#4"These solar cells are used in concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), a technology which achieves more than twice the efficiency of conventional PV 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 prevailed to realize highest efficiencies for the conversion of sunlight to electricity. In this multi-junction solar cell, s…
>I think we may start to see Moore's Law starting to be applied to Solar Cells.
It would have to be a kind of inverse Moore's law, given that you can't double beyond 100%.
Re: World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
#5I'm going to turn to Hacker News, as I always do, for context: what would 50% efficiency mean?
Re: World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
#6Is the composition of this one solar cell from 4 subcells of any significance? Is it just 4 for a reason?
Re: World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
#7"These solar cells are used in concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), a technology which achieves more than twice the efficiency of conventional PV 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 prevailed to realize highest efficiencies for the conversion of sunlight to electricity. In this multi-junction solar cell, s…
It is indeed interesting, but IIRC most of the funding for satellite launches (R&D for III-V semiconductors) came from intelligence, not NASA. So, um, thank you, NSA! :P
What with their love for predictability, it's no wonder they're strong supporters of the sun.
Re: World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
#8"These solar cells are used in concentrator photovoltaics (CPV), a technology which achieves more than twice the efficiency of conventional PV 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 prevailed to realize highest efficiencies for the conversion of sunlight to electricity. In this multi-junction solar cell, s…
It is indeed interesting, but IIRC most of the funding for satellite launches (R&D for III-V semiconductors) came from intelligence, not NASA. So, um, thank you, NSA! :P
I would rather dump trillions of dollars into NASA and their tech :D.
Re: World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
#9Odd that the figure says that the efficiency was 44.7% +/- 3.1% -- given the big error bar, how could they say they'd increased 1% in 4 months? Measure it again, who knows what you'll get!
Re: World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency
#10Maybe I missed it in the article, but what was considered a good efficiency prior to this?