gallium arsenide solar cell Archives – The Green Optimistic

Record: AltaDevices Brags 28.2 Percent Efficient Gallium Arsenide Solar Cell

Ovidiu Sandru — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 17:18:17 +0000

A new solar cell efficiency record has been achieved by a startup CA-based company called Alta Devices. Previously unknown, the Santa Clara firm brags an efficiency of 28.2 percent for their gallium-arsenide solar cell, a number 2 percent higher than last year's previous record, and could eventually bring down the costs of solar power to make it compete with coal and gas.

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New Layering Technology Makes Ultra-Efficient Solar Cells Available Not Only for Satellites

Ovidiu Sandru — Thu, 27 May 2010 14:37:43 +0000

Silicon is hardly the most efficient material for use in solar cells, but it is used because it's cheaper to make silicon solar cells. Gallium arsenide, for example, is a much more efficient semiconductor than silicon, but has a high manufacturing cost. Now, a team of scientists from the University of Illionis, devised a technology that builds gallium arsenide solar cells in a much cheaper fashion, making them more cost-efficient.

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Semprius's Micrometric Solar Cells Efficient in Concentrated Photovoltaic Systems

Ovidiu Sandru — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:56:40 +0000

Concentrated photovoltaic systems are usually more effective than regular, flat ones, because a lens focuses the sunlight on a smaller surface of some efficient and more expensive solar cells 500 times stronger than the cells would receive in regular operation. Heat is mostly a problem with concentrated PV systems, since it has to be efficiently dissipated through complex and expensive cooling technique.

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