Eco Factor: World’s most efficient crystalline solar cells.
Sanyo Electric Co. has announced that it has succeeded it breaking its own record for the world’s highest energy conversion efficiency in crystalline silicon solar cells. The HIT solar cells boast an efficiency of 23%, which is about 0.7% more than the previous record. The success of the technology was stated to be a change in the quality of heterojunction of the HIT solar cells and a reduction in optical absorption loss, which till date has marred the efficiency of solar cells.
The company stated that their new HIT solar cells consist of a single thin layer of a crystalline silicon sandwiched in between two layers of high quality ultra-thin amorphous silicon layers. These layers improve the quality of the heterojunction and also allow more sunlight to hit the power generating silicon surface. Other than this, a reduction in resistance loss also allowed Sanyo to make the cells highly efficient.
Via: Sanyo [Press Release]
