Gallium Arsenide Solar Panel Efficiency

This is a superior property of gallium arsenide.

Gallium arsenide solar panel efficiency. Filling a market gap. However this technology is some of the most expensive solar tech. Gallium arsenide multi junction and other advanced technologies could be the next generation. The record was independently confirmed by the national renewable energy laboratory part of the department of energy.

Gallium arsenide solar cells are up to 45 efficient at harvesting energy from the sun where quality solar cells are currently around 17 20 efficient. The same company has now set an efficiency record for an entire solar panel at 23 5 percent. The best monocrystalline solar cells on the market today can reach an efficiency of about 26 10. Taken together they are the largest representation of solar in space occupying enough area to cover most of a football field.

The resulting efficiency level was 24 9 for a single junction. Actual size of a 2kw gallium arsenide super cell is approx. Alta devices makes solar panels using gallium arsenide cells a more efficient material than the generally cheaper silicon based cells. Gallium arsenide solar cells.

When it comes to the efficiency of the photovoltaic industry it is inseparable from theoretical efficiency and mass production efficiency. For example a solar panel with 20 efficiency and an area of 1 m 2 will produce 200 kwh yr at standard test conditions but it can produce more when the sun is high in the sky and will produce less in cloudy conditions or when the sun is low in the sky. Gallium arsenide solar cells can reach a top efficiency of 27 80. Solar cells and detectors gallium arsenide is an important semiconductor material for high cost high efficiency solar cells and is used for single crystalline thin film solar cells and for multi junction solar cells.

Gallium arsenide solar cells can have roughly 25 efficiency rating with only one junction. In a recent article in the magazine electronic news gallium arsenide was tested on a germanium substrate. 10cm x 15cm shown above next to a business card. Gaas solar cells can harness more sunlight than silicon based solar cells because they are made using a soft and silvery metal which can also be found in electronic circuits semiconductor materials and light emitting diodes.

As a runner up multi junction cells made of gallium arsenide and similar materials resist degradation better than silicon and are the most efficient cells currently made with energy conversion efficiencies up to 34. Adding that one layer of the gallium arsenide phosphide can really boost efficiency of the solar cell but because of the unique ability to etch away the silicon germanium and reuse it the cost is kept low because you can amortize that silicon germanium cost over the course of manufacturing many cells fitzgerald adds. The first known operational use of gaas solar cells in space was for the venera 3 mission launched in 1965.