I didn’t know the Guiness Book awards solar cell efficiencies lately. This story I read on Cleantechnica tells how SunPower, “the most popular solar panels company in California,” got into the Guinness Book for providing people with “the most efficient commercially available photovoltaic modules on the market.”
The announcement has been made last Wednesday at the Intersolar conference in Germany. The efficiency figure that was awarded is 22.4 percent.”The E20 panels,” which have 96 cells and are come in 333-watt and 327-watt models, “are available for all markets-residential and commercial rooftops and ground-mount power plant applications,” said Ingrid Ekstrom, SunPower spokesperson.
The NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) itself had certified the average 22.4 percent efficiency, which in real life proved to be somewhat higher, about 5 percent more, in some cases.
Making solar cell efficiencies popular is both a good marketing method and a challenge for other PV producers and distributors to make solar panels better and better, so the consumer can yield the highest amount of electricity off his rooftop. This proves going solar is always an inspired choice and will only get better in time.
