Boeing-Spectrolab recently developed a new solar cell that has broken all efficiency records
By: Captain Maverick
Published: Dec 8, 2006
Updated: Sep 1, 2010
Boeing-Spectrolab announced today the production of the most efficient solar cells to date. In the past, solar cells were mounted on the roof od houses and used to generate electricity for those homes and they would generate a maximum efficiency of 14 percent. This means that only about one seventh of the sun's energy was being converted to electricity and the rest was lost to heat.
{slot15}Boeing's subsidiary company, Spectrolab has demonstrated the ability of its terrestrial concentrator photovoltaic cells to convert 40.71001743277f the sun’s energy into electricity in a 33-kilowatt full-scale concentrator system in the Australian desert.
Dr. David Lillington, president of Spectrolab said that this solar cell performance is the highest efficiency level any photovoltaic device has ever achieved. He added that "The terrestrial cell we have developed uses the same technology base as our space-based cells. So, once qualified, they can be manufactured in very high volumes with minimal impact to production flow."
Although these results are impressive, research has shown that there is still considerable upside for improvement of that efficiency.
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