Commercial Solar Hits 26.6% conversion efficiency

[LabSpokane]

http://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-have-broken-the-record-for-solar-panel-efficiency-again

Yes, there's some of the usual hype, but it's progress. 

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Scientists Have Broken the Efficiency Record for Mass-Produced Solar Panels
Yes!
DAVID NIELD 24 MAR 2017
Researchers in Japan have set a new record for the efficiency of mass-produced solar panels, meaning even more of the Sun's energy can now be converted into electricity.

The efficiency record for solar panels now stands at 26.6 percent - breaking the previous record established in 2015.   


"Improving the photoconversion efficiency of silicon solar cells is crucial to further the deployment of renewable electricity," the team from Japan's Kaneko company explains. "This result confirms the strong potential of silicon photovoltaics."

To reach their record-breaking efficiency level, the team layered silicon inside individual cells to minimise band gaps where electrons can't exist and sunlight is wasted.

This approach is called thin-film heterojunction (HJ) optimisation, and while other scientists have attempted the procedure before, the Kaneko researchers improved the technique and were able to achieve that 26.6 percent milestone.

The team optimised their setup by placing low-resistance electrodes toward the rear of the cell, away from the exposed side, maximising the number of photons that could be collected from the front.

That photon collection was then made even more efficient with amorphous silicon and anti-reflective layers on top, to protect the cell components and reduce the amount of sunlight being lost.

While research-oriented panels have reached higher efficiencies - over 40 percent in some cases - this is a new record for panels viable for home use, although it's not always easy to say which technologies are feasible for consumer panels.


The definition of what's consumer-friendly is always changing, as production processes improve and costs come down, so keeping track can be tricky. But the bottom line is we're making progress.

In this specific case, we're talking about crystalline silicon-based solar panel cells, which have a theoretical efficiency of around 29 percent based on scientists' best estimates.

These cells have become the industry standard thanks to their reliability and relatively low cost.

nrel-chart-2017
Current solar cell efficiencies. Credit: NREL

As always, the Efficiency Chart (above) produced by the US National Renewable Energy Lab is a useful guide to where the various solar panel technologies are up to.

You can see the new Kaneko record marked on the right-hand side (click here for a bigger version).

The team is now exploring the practical steps needed to make the technique they've achieved in the lab ready for mass production, but it sounds like it won't be long before we're tapping into even more power from the Sun - and that can only be a good thing.

The research has been published in Nature Energy.

[nsrmagazin]

The previous record is not mentioned. Solar panel are not longer produced in Europe(except in 1-2 places) and they are getting out of fashion.

[awallin]

residential panels are 1.6 m2-ish in area, solar radiation at equator 1366W/m2, with that efficiency I get 580 W for the 1.6m2 panel - pretty nice if true 

I guess the highest wattage panels now available are around 300-320W (?)

[CatalinaWOW]

I believe there is some confusion here between cell efficiency and panel efficiency.  While they say panels in the headline, the chart is for cell efficiency.  Panel efficiencies are lower for a variety of reasons.  Since these haven't actually gone into production any prediction of panel level efficiency is speculative.

[nsrmagazin]

Also they forget to mention how much do panels last and how much energy is needed to produce them. A hybrid generator/photovoltaic panel is better. The problem is its hard to put them on big heights.

[apis]

residential panels are 1.6 m2-ish in area, solar radiation at equator 1366W/m2, with that efficiency I get 580 W for the 1.6m2 panel - pretty nice if true 

I guess the highest wattage panels now available are around 300-320W (?)

That's not right. It's 1362 W/m² in space! The atmosphere eats up about 26% so you can at most get 1000 W/m² on a clear day. The yearly average insolation is lower than that because the sky isn't always clear and the sun isn't always shining or perpendicular to the surface. More realistically you will get 200-350 W/m² on average around the equator. You can improve that a bit by having the solar panels tracking the sun, but you can't do much about clouds or nighttime.

With 22.5% panel efficiency and an area of 1.6 m² that translates to about 360 W peak, or 70-125 W average near the equator.

With 26.6% panel efficiency and an area of 1.6 m² that translates to about 426 W peak, or 85-150 W average near the equator.

The efficiency isn't that important in most application though, what matters is the price/watt.

[NiHaoMike]

The efficiency isn't that important in most application though, what matters is the price/watt.

That seems to be missed all too often. In most stationary applications, there's not much to gain making the panels smaller for the power output, but lots to gain making them cheaper.

[Kleinstein]

There is some importance to efficiency as there are cost factors like the glass and support structure that scale with the area. Some estimates say that something like the first 5% efficiency are needed to cover things like the support structure, glass and cleaning. So a good efficiency can help to get the costs low.

AFAIK there were already commercial available concentrator modules with high efficiency. However they needed active sun tracking - so a different category.

[coppice]

The efficiency isn't that important in most application though, what matters is the price/watt.

This assumes you have lots and lots of space. Most people are space constrained. If better panels mean they can get sufficient additional output from their limited space for the premium in their system cost, they can more than pay off that premium from additional energy sales, or reduced energy purchasing, over the life of the system.

It is important to remember that price/watt has multiple meanings, and people keep jumbling them up in these conversations. The one that really counts for a panel maker is the price/watt of panel output. The one that really counts for the end user is the price/watt of an entire installed system. Those are very different numbers, and even for people with no space constraints, the system level price/watt when using more expensive panels can be lower if less panels are needed.