4 ms·

Yep, see 40% cells used 4 years ago in http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130426005162/en/Amonix-Achieves-World-Record-PV-Module-Efficiency http://www.busi

Yep, see 40% cells used 4 years ago in http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130426005162/en/Amonix-Achieves-World-Record-PV-Module-Efficiency http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130426005162/en/Amon... (36% eff in practical application due to system losses)

k__ 9y ago
Nice. What's the maximum? What's the current standard?
- hwillis 9y ago
  Max so far is 46%[1], max theoretical is 86.8%[2] Most solar panels are 15% or better. The best residential cells are 22.2%[3], the commercial cells are 25.3%. The theoretical maximum efficiency of single-layer silicon PV cells is ~32%. [1]: https://www.nrel.gov/pv/assets/images/efficiency-chart.png https://www.nrel.gov/pv/assets/images/efficiency-chart.png [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limi... [3]: https://us.sunpower.com/sites/sunpower/files/media-library/data-sheets/ds-x22-series-360-residential-solar-panels.pdf https://us.sunpower.com/sites/sunpower/files/media-library/d...
  - schoen 9y ago
    That's awesome. I remember always hearing 10% when I was a kid, which looks about right on that first chart, assuming it takes a few years before things are commercialized. It's terrific to see the march of improvements in efficiency.
  - deepsun 9y ago
    Curious, what is on spacecrafts. Maybe not really efficient at all, because weight and reliability is way more important out there, and also abundance of raw sunlight.
    - extrapickles 9y ago
      Usually much better (5-10%) as cost is no object, and they don't have the losses involved with the protective glass that terrestrial applications need. Edit: and they are usually triple junction.
    - mlindner 9y ago
      We used triple-junction solar cells on our satellite. If I remember right the cells ran somewhere around $100-$200 per square inch. I don't remember the efficiency, but they were left-over dumped cells that were donated to us by some group at NASA because they "expired" (they're kept under a nitrogen purge because they oxidize slowly and these had a leak, if memory serves, still worked great though) and a few were broken as they are more fragile than glass and are about as thin as a sheet of paper. They glow bright red when you forward bias them which you can use to visually detect dead portions of the cell/damage.
  - lucb1e 9y ago
    > max theoretical is 86.8% I recall hearing the theoretical max was somewhere around 36%, though it could well be my memory is faulty. I think this was from a video from around 2005. Is this "theoretical max" going up over time or do I misremember?
    - rsfern 9y ago
      I think 31% is the thermodynamic limit for a single p-n junction, and 86.6 is for an infinite stack of them [0]. I'm not sure whether these limits apply to non-planar geometries. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamic_efficiency_limit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamic_efficiency_lim...
    - hwillis 9y ago
      86.8% is for an infinite number of layers with concentrated solar. 33.7% is the max for a single layer p-n junction, which is what most readily available cells are. The most expensive, high efficiency cells, like those on spacecraft, are 3 layer. They are too expensive to be practical on Earth.
- philipkglass 9y ago
  The current state of the art for commercialized multi-junction cells, used almost exclusively in space applications, is 30-32% cell efficiency: http://www.spectrolab.com/solarcells.htm http://www.spectrolab.com/solarcells.htm http://www.azurspace.com/index.php/en/products/products-space/space-solar-cells http://www.azurspace.com/index.php/en/products/products-spac... https://solaerotech.com/products/space-solar-cells-coverglass-interconnected-cells-cic/ https://solaerotech.com/products/space-solar-cells-coverglas... Multi-junction cells similar to these have so far reached efficiencies up into the mid-40% range with optically concentrated sunlight under experimental conditions, though such high efficiencies have not been reached in mass production. Multi-junction cells represent less than 0.01% of annual PV cell production. About 95% of annual PV cell production is based on different variants of single-junction crystalline silicon, with current commercial cell efficiencies in the 16-25% range. The 30% cells for space use also sell for more than 1000x the price-per-watt of a simple 16% silicon cell. A theoretical "infinite-junction" solar cell could achieve up to 68.7% efficiency under full-power illumination from the sun on a clear day, or up to 86.8% efficiency on a clear day under optically concentrated sunlight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency#Thermodynamic_efficiency_limit_and_infinite-stack_limit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency#Thermody... The theoretical limit for single-junction silicon cells is 29.4%: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6557081/ http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6557081/ SunPower has reached just over 25% efficiency industrially for its best cells, which are single junction silicon using advanced cell structures. The highest conversion ever achieved experimentally for single-junction silicon is 26.6%, announced just a couple of weeks ago: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092702481730332X http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927024817... The experimenters combined two leading industrial techniques for high efficiency silicon cells (interdigitated back contact structure, like SunPower uses, and heterojunction cells using amorphous silicon, like Panasonic/Tesla use) to reach the 26.6% record.
  - k__ 9y ago
    Cool, thanks :D What does an increase of 10% mean? That I could get 10% more Watts from the same area of panels? How much do we need? Would a houshold in Canada need much more panels than one in Mexico? Is 15% or 20% already enough to power a whole 1-family-house? Are batteries or PV panels the bigger problem here?
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]

k__ 9y ago

Nice. What's the maximum? What's the current standard?

hwillis 9y ago
Max so far is 46%[1], max theoretical is 86.8%[2] Most solar panels are 15% or better. The best residential cells are 22.2%[3], the commercial cells are 25.3%. The theoretical maximum efficiency of single-layer silicon PV cells is ~32%. [1]: https://www.nrel.gov/pv/assets/images/efficiency-chart.png https://www.nrel.gov/pv/assets/images/efficiency-chart.png [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shockley%E2%80%93Queisser_limi... [3]: https://us.sunpower.com/sites/sunpower/files/media-library/data-sheets/ds-x22-series-360-residential-solar-panels.pdf https://us.sunpower.com/sites/sunpower/files/media-library/d...
- schoen 9y ago
  That's awesome. I remember always hearing 10% when I was a kid, which looks about right on that first chart, assuming it takes a few years before things are commercialized. It's terrific to see the march of improvements in efficiency.
- deepsun 9y ago
  Curious, what is on spacecrafts. Maybe not really efficient at all, because weight and reliability is way more important out there, and also abundance of raw sunlight.
  - extrapickles 9y ago
    Usually much better (5-10%) as cost is no object, and they don't have the losses involved with the protective glass that terrestrial applications need. Edit: and they are usually triple junction.
  - mlindner 9y ago
    We used triple-junction solar cells on our satellite. If I remember right the cells ran somewhere around $100-$200 per square inch. I don't remember the efficiency, but they were left-over dumped cells that were donated to us by some group at NASA because they "expired" (they're kept under a nitrogen purge because they oxidize slowly and these had a leak, if memory serves, still worked great though) and a few were broken as they are more fragile than glass and are about as thin as a sheet of paper. They glow bright red when you forward bias them which you can use to visually detect dead portions of the cell/damage.
- lucb1e 9y ago
  > max theoretical is 86.8% I recall hearing the theoretical max was somewhere around 36%, though it could well be my memory is faulty. I think this was from a video from around 2005. Is this "theoretical max" going up over time or do I misremember?
  - rsfern 9y ago
    I think 31% is the thermodynamic limit for a single p-n junction, and 86.6 is for an infinite stack of them [0]. I'm not sure whether these limits apply to non-planar geometries. [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamic_efficiency_limit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamic_efficiency_lim...
  - hwillis 9y ago
    86.8% is for an infinite number of layers with concentrated solar. 33.7% is the max for a single layer p-n junction, which is what most readily available cells are. The most expensive, high efficiency cells, like those on spacecraft, are 3 layer. They are too expensive to be practical on Earth.
philipkglass 9y ago
The current state of the art for commercialized multi-junction cells, used almost exclusively in space applications, is 30-32% cell efficiency: http://www.spectrolab.com/solarcells.htm http://www.spectrolab.com/solarcells.htm http://www.azurspace.com/index.php/en/products/products-space/space-solar-cells http://www.azurspace.com/index.php/en/products/products-spac... https://solaerotech.com/products/space-solar-cells-coverglass-interconnected-cells-cic/ https://solaerotech.com/products/space-solar-cells-coverglas... Multi-junction cells similar to these have so far reached efficiencies up into the mid-40% range with optically concentrated sunlight under experimental conditions, though such high efficiencies have not been reached in mass production. Multi-junction cells represent less than 0.01% of annual PV cell production. About 95% of annual PV cell production is based on different variants of single-junction crystalline silicon, with current commercial cell efficiencies in the 16-25% range. The 30% cells for space use also sell for more than 1000x the price-per-watt of a simple 16% silicon cell. A theoretical "infinite-junction" solar cell could achieve up to 68.7% efficiency under full-power illumination from the sun on a clear day, or up to 86.8% efficiency on a clear day under optically concentrated sunlight: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency#Thermodynamic_efficiency_limit_and_infinite-stack_limit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell_efficiency#Thermody... The theoretical limit for single-junction silicon cells is 29.4%: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6557081/ http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6557081/ SunPower has reached just over 25% efficiency industrially for its best cells, which are single junction silicon using advanced cell structures. The highest conversion ever achieved experimentally for single-junction silicon is 26.6%, announced just a couple of weeks ago: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092702481730332X http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927024817... The experimenters combined two leading industrial techniques for high efficiency silicon cells (interdigitated back contact structure, like SunPower uses, and heterojunction cells using amorphous silicon, like Panasonic/Tesla use) to reach the 26.6% record.
- k__ 9y ago
  Cool, thanks :D What does an increase of 10% mean? That I could get 10% more Watts from the same area of panels? How much do we need? Would a houshold in Canada need much more panels than one in Mexico? Is 15% or 20% already enough to power a whole 1-family-house? Are batteries or PV panels the bigger problem here?
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]