news review
Alta Devices GaAs solar panel raises the bar with 23.5% efficiency
ALTA has taken another step toward commercialising its GaAs multi-junction solar technology.
The firm chose to focus on GaAs because of its intrinsic efficiency advantages as well as its ability to generate electricity at high temperatures and in low light. This means that Alta’s panels have substantially higher energy density than other technologies, generating more kilowatt-hours of energy over the course of a year in real life conditions.
According to Christopher Norris, Alta president and CEO, “Our goal is to optimise the production economics of solar so that it is competitive with fossil fuels without subsidies, leading to broad adoption of solar generated electricity.” In addition to technology advances which push the limits of energy density, Alta is also focused on changing the
manufacturing economics of solar and enabling formats and form factors that were previously not possible.
GaAs is known for being expensive to produce, Alta has invented a manufacturing technique that enables extremely thin layers of GaAs that are a fraction of the thickness of earlier GaAs
solar cells. Alta’s cells are about one micron thick, forty times thinner than a human hair.
In utilising very thin devices that have the highest energy density possible, the cost of the material needed in Alta panels remains low and the potential costs of an entire solar energy system based on Alta’s technology could be dramatically reduced.
What’s more, because Alta’s PV film is thin and flexible, it has the potential to be integrated in wholly unique ways and into a variety of applications – including roof and building materials, and numerous military, consumer, and transportation products.
According to Norris, Alta is making substantial progress on the build-out of its pilot manufacturing line, which uses mostly off-the-shelf equipment with some proprietary optimizations unique to Alta’s process. Moreover, Alta is starting to plan for full-scale production, with activities such as building strategic manufacturing partnerships and selecting its first large, commercial manufacturing site.
According to Alta investor, Andy Rappaport of August Capital, “Alta has perfectly and very systematically met its plan for achieving, and then continually improving on record efficiency since the company was first funded. This consistency of technical
accomplishment, building on the potential inherent in Alta’s core technology, confirms our belief that the company will change the landscape of solar energy deployment.”
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net March 2012
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