At a recent conference related to solar power, Panasonic unveiled a new solar cell design that converts 25.6 percent of the incident solar radiation to electricity. This breaks the long-standing, 20-yr old record of 25.0 percent. The new design combines elements of two of the most efficient types of solar cells available commercially: those produced by the solar company SunPower and an earlier design by Panasonic. In the new design, Panasonic used a similar approach to SunPower’s to get rid of the front contacts and eliminate shading. The main difference is that Panasonic applies this design to its own high-efficiency cell structure, which addresses another major problem with conventional silicon solar cells; Imperfections at or near the surface of the crystalline silicon wafers. While a 0.6 percent change in efficiency might not seem that large, it can actually have a huge impact on the solar industry as a whole.
Source: MIT Technology Review
