Several University of Delaware (UD) researchers have assembled a highly-efficient solar cell module, and obtained an efficiency of 36.1 percent in the conversion process.
Their system consisted of a lens, a dichroic mirror, and two two-cell stacks sponsored by the NREL (National Renewable Energy Laboratory), achieving probably “the highest efficiency yet measured for the experimental conversion of sunlight to electricity by any means”, as some article written by an international group of scientists stated.
The solar cell module assembly has been the work of a team from the US, NREL and ASU (Arizona State University), being initiated under DARPA’s Very Efficient Solar Cell and Module program.
“This is the only citation from a U.S. university in this important index,” Prof. Allen Barnett, from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UD, says. “The module and test bed were designed, fabricated, and assembled by the UD students, led by Xiaoting Wang, one of Barnett’s students. Other team members from the UD are Nick Waite and Paola Murcia.
The team’s work has been thoroughly documented in the paper “Outdoor Measurements for High Efficiency Solar Cell Assemblies”, and has been presented and the 24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition, which took place in Hamburg, Germany, in September last year.
