Gallium Arsenide Archives – The Green Optimistic

Holographic Solar Panels – Cheaper and More Efficient

Leigh Hutchens — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:00:31 +0000

Apollo Shipping GmbH & Co. KG, from Dresden, and Solar Bankers LLC, which is based in Arizona, have banded together to develop a silicon-based solar panel with a holographic foil that is twice as efficient as typical models. Apollo and Solar Bankers said that instead of the typical 17% efficiency of other panels, their solar […]

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New Thin-Film Solar Cell May Provide Electricity at Grid Parity

Leigh Hutchens — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 07:21:36 +0000

No stranger to developing sustainable organic photovoltaic (OPV) technologies, Global Photonic Energy Corp. (GPEC), has created a thin-film solar cell that has the ability to provide electricity at grid parity or the cost of traditionally provided electricity. This breakthrough is the direct result of drastically reduced production costs and is based on a method that […]

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Malachite’s Solar Cell 38% Efficient, at Least in Theory

Janina Lazo-Cruz — Thu, 01 Nov 2012 15:55:12 +0000

Malachite Technologies, a solar cell startup company based in San Francisco, California, aims to improve solar cell’s efficiency by coating gallium arsenide on silicon. Gallium arsenide, a III-V semiconductor that has six times higher electron mobility than silicon, allows a faster operation and lower thermal noise. Based on Malachite’s calculations, the silicon/gallium-arsenide tandem solar cell […]

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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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Quantasol Breaks Solar Efficiency Records With Location-Optimized Cells

Ovidiu Sandru — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 20:41:27 +0000

There are many companies in the solar power business that want to make themselves a name, but only few manage to innovate something indeed useful. This time I think Quantasol, a UK company has something worth looking at - very efficient GaAs-based solar cells accustomed to your location.

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