Sharp Solar Breaks Conversion Efficiency Record
Alternative Energy enewsletter, October 29th, 2009
Sharp Solar We still have to miles to cover before solar power can replace the fossil fuels and become a cheap and effective solution for common folks. But it is indisputable that sun is the single greatest fuel source we can harness to our advantage. Solar energy can leave its impact on a global scale in a significant manner. Everyone who is blessed with a hot, sunny spot by the grace of the nature could one day power their homes entirely by photovoltaic roofs. Even it seems possible that large solar arrays could feed power plants that keep the lights on in entire municipalities.
Sharp Corporation’s technical team has come up with an impressive solar power development. Though its nothing new for the research and development team as they often come up with solar gadgets from televisions to mobile phones. This time the Sharp broke the solar conversion efficiency record. According to the company, it’s a title-holding 35.8 percent cell conversion efficiency with the help of a triple-junction compound cell. Sharp team has been working on this project since 2000.
These compound cells are chiefly used on satellites. The triple-junction cell has a group of three photo-absorption layers and it uses indium gallium or arsenide to boost efficiency. To boost the efficiency of triple-junction compound solar cells, it is important to improve the “crystallinity” in each photo-absorption layer. Sharp has successfully formulated an InGaAs layer with high crystallinity by using its unique technology for forming layers. The whole exercise resulted in the formation of layers that minimized waste and hitting a record conversion efficiency of 35.8%. Hopefully this kind of technology will trickle down to the consumer market too.
If everything goes right with this project then solar power will lose its just some pie-in-the-sky image. Solar power will emerge as effective power source sooner than expected. Still solar cells are being used in a variety of products but developments like 35.8 percent efficiency attaches wings to clean and green energy sources. Sharp’s triple-junction compound cell just broke a world record by showing a 35.8% cell conversion efficiency.
To boost the efficiency of triple-junction compound solar cells, it is important to improve the crystallinity (the regularity of the atomic arrangement) in each photo-absorption layer (the top, middle, and bottom layer). It is also crucial that the solar cell be composed of materials that can maximize the effective use of solar energy. Traditionally, germanium is used as the base layer due to its ease of manufacturing. However, if we care to look from the view of performance, even though germanium produces a large amount of current, the majority of the current is wasted, without being used effectively for electrical energy. How to get rid of this significant hurdle? The answer to this problem was to form the bottom layer from InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide), a material with high light utilization efficiency. However, it is quite difficult to produce high-quality InGaAs with high crystallinity.
Sharp has overcome this hurdle of forming an InGaAs layer with high crystallinity by making use of its proprietary technology for forming layers. The end desirable result is the amount of wasted current has been reduced to minimum and the conversion efficiency, which had been 31.5% in Sharp’s previous cells, has been successfully increased to 35.8%
Sharp Solar We still have to miles to cover before solar power can replace the fossil fuels and become a cheap and effective solution for common folks. But it is indisputable that sun is the single greatest fuel source we can harness to our advantage. Solar energy can leave its impact on a global scale in a significant manner. Everyone who is blessed with a hot, sunny spot by the grace of the nature could one day power their homes entirely by photovoltaic roofs. Even it seems possible that large solar arrays could feed power plants that keep the lights on in entire municipalities.
Sharp Corporation’s technical team has come up with an impressive solar power development. Though its nothing new for the research and development team as they often come up with solar gadgets from televisions to mobile phones. This time the Sharp broke the solar conversion efficiency record. According to the company, it’s a title-holding 35.8 percent cell conversion efficiency with the help of a triple-junction compound cell. Sharp team has been working on this project since 2000.
These compound cells are chiefly used on satellites. The triple-junction cell has a group of three photo-absorption layers and it uses indium gallium or arsenide to boost efficiency. To boost the efficiency of triple-junction compound solar cells, it is important to improve the “crystallinity” in each photo-absorption layer. Sharp has successfully formulated an InGaAs layer with high crystallinity by using its unique technology for forming layers. The whole exercise resulted in the formation of layers that minimized waste and hitting a record conversion efficiency of 35.8%. Hopefully this kind of technology will trickle down to the consumer market too.
If everything goes right with this project then solar power will lose its just some pie-in-the-sky image. Solar power will emerge as effective power source sooner than expected. Still solar cells are being used in a variety of products but developments like 35.8 percent efficiency attaches wings to clean and green energy sources. Sharp’s triple-junction compound cell just broke a world record by showing a 35.8% cell conversion efficiency.
To boost the efficiency of triple-junction compound solar cells, it is important to improve the crystallinity (the regularity of the atomic arrangement) in each photo-absorption layer (the top, middle, and bottom layer). It is also crucial that the solar cell be composed of materials that can maximize the effective use of solar energy. Traditionally, germanium is used as the base layer due to its ease of manufacturing. However, if we care to look from the view of performance, even though germanium produces a large amount of current, the majority of the current is wasted, without being used effectively for electrical energy. How to get rid of this significant hurdle? The answer to this problem was to form the bottom layer from InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide), a material with high light utilization efficiency. However, it is quite difficult to produce high-quality InGaAs with high crystallinity.
Sharp has overcome this hurdle of forming an InGaAs layer with high crystallinity by making use of its proprietary technology for forming layers. The end desirable result is the amount of wasted current has been reduced to minimum and the conversion efficiency, which had been 31.5% in Sharp’s previous cells, has been successfully increased to 35.8%
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Tags: 35.8%, PV, Solar, efficiency
Comment
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Comment by Kevin Espeseth on October 30, 2009 at 7:05pm -
Not a particular big fan of Sharp products, but I have to hand it to them. Keep up the good work. Who cares how it is generated (wind, thermal solar, fuel cell from nat. gas, combination, etc), as long as it is clean.
also,...as opposed to sending $10 BILLION -EACH DAY- to Dubui? (20 HP constant per home, multiplied by all the residences in the US)
I would like to see a standardized garage design for solar generation (possibly sold with the car). The garage adaptation would be about the easiest step to adding electrical supplement to residential living. All the machinery would be installed in a location adaptable to safe operation, with a single 110 connection to the home/grid for storage.
Better still, maybe we could get a fair price for energy generated (from the utilities) -$.05 / KWH @ 20 HP = $1,500 month!- (although most of this would go to power the home and auto...)
mmm it gets better...
"Sell them the record player (home/McMansion) at a low price and make your money from them on the sale of the records (energy)". This busuness plan (primaraly Americian) needs to change from this "company town" development suppressive ideology.
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Comment by Tom Bailey on October 30, 2009 at 6:04am -
Great info from all contributors!
Thank you all for keeping us less knowledgeable people in the loop!
Best; Tom
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Comment by Scott Baker on October 30, 2009 at 4:48am -
The big problem with solar isn't solar at all - it is the way we fail to price in externalities in the fossil fuel industries. Charge for pollution, land use & abuse, and the taking of finite resources which rightfully belong to all of us (Exxon didn't MAKE the oil in the ground, did they?) and you'll quickly see renewables looking much better. Factor in the cost of importing oil/nat gas etc. from ever-decreasing reserves (as Pickens does) and renewables look still better. Finally, factor in the costs of our military to guard foreign oil fields and the climate costs and there's really no contest. Remember, just because a cost doesn't show up on a balance sheet doesn't mean someone doesn't pay. We all pay for coal ash spills, foreign oil field protections and the air/water/land pollution that goes along with fossil fuels. To be fair, solar power plants should pay a small amount for the use of marginal land and the taking of sunlight (after all, if company A takes sunlight with their solar panels, Company B can't place their panels in that location), but we should untax the profits from production. The Single Tax is the answer.
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Comment by Chris Tidman on October 29, 2009 at 9:00pm -
The big problem with photo cells is that an enormous amount of energy is needed to manufacture them. Efficiency will have to increase much, much more and the costs of production (read energy input) will have to drop significantly before they will start to make sense as a home energy supply. We won't mention the fact that they are made of lots of nasty materials.
Solar/thermal - like using the sun to cook something or boil water to run a generator or to heat a working fluid to drive a heat engine like the plan proposed by Paul Passerelli of Solar/Thermal inc. is available technology that exists now, works very well and produces a lot more power than the energy used to set the system up.
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