Solar Cell Efficiency of 40 percent reached
Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that DOE funding had produced a 40% efficient concentrating photovoltaic solar cell.
DOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner announced January 10th that a concentrator solar cell produced by a Boeing-Spectrolab team recently achieved a record conversion efficiency of 40.7 percent. This breakthrough may lead to systems with an installation cost of only $3 per watt, vs. $6 to $8 today, producing electricity at a cost of 15 to 20 cents per kilowatt/hour (without incentives), making solar electricity more cost-competitive. The best current commercial systems are less than 13 percent efficient, so it may be some time before these cells actually make it to market.
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