UNSW Breaks Own Record for Solar Cell Efficiency

The milestone of 25% efficiency for solar cells has now been reached by the researchers from the ARC Photovoltaic Center of Excellence at The University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Kensington, Australia. Actually, it's not a new product or technology used for silicon solar cells that has enabled them to break their own previous record, but rather a recalibration of the international standards by which this efficiency is measured.

 

The new standard fine-tuning took advantage of new intel on the composition of sunlight that is convertible into electricity. According to Scientia Professor Martin Green, the Center Executive Research Director, “Since the weights of the colors in sunlight change during the day, solar cells are measured under a standard color spectrum defined under typical operational meteorological conditions. Improvements in understanding atmospheric effects upon the color content of sunlight led to a revision of the standard spectrum in April. The new spectrum has a higher energy content both down the blue end of the spectrum and at the opposite red end with, dare I say it, relatively less green.”

 

The reconfiguration of the international standard boosted the actual efficiency percentage of the UNSW's solar cells by quite a lot, compared with those developed by their competitors, allowing for the 6th new world record to be claimed by the Australian University. Their cells, which are about 6% more efficient than those of the runner-up companies, have been built by former employees, Dr. Jianhua Zhao and Dr. Aihua Wang, who have founded China Sunergy, a prominent photovoltaic cell company.

 

ARC Center's director, professor Stuart Wenham, shared their plans for the future, regarding integrating cell production into the mainstream: “Our main efforts now are focused on getting these efficiency improvements into commercial production. Production compatible versions of our high efficiency technology are being introduced into production as we speak.”