news digest ♦ Solar
“We strongly believe in Nanosolar’s technology and the company’s ability to deliver the most cost-efficient solar electricity for utility scale and defense installations,” says John Trbovich, of Arsenal Venture Partners, the manager of OnPoint Technologies, Inc.
“We are pleased to see the continued trust that our investors place in our company. The Family Offices that joined the round have a long-term view of the solar market and will help Nanosolar scale its business faster,” adds Guido Polko, executive chairman of Nanosolar’s board of directors.
“With this latest round of funding, Nanosolar will be able to continue ramping up its production capabilities and achieve a faster time-to-market with its products. The money also will allow us to deepen our R&D efforts aimed at achieving even greater efficiency, and significantly expand our employee base in both Europe and the United States.”
By printing CIGS inks on low-cost aluminum foil, Nanosolar is utilising its proprietary roll-to-roll printable semiconductor technology to enable low cost thin-film solar panels. The firm says this approach minimises the use of expensive, high vacuum manufacturing equipment, and enables Nanosolar solar cells and panels to reach efficiencies competitive with crystalline silicon panels.
Nanosolar currently has manufacturing capacity in excess of 100 MW, with committed deliveries to multiple international customers in the 2 to 11 MW range. The company has achieved lab-tested top cell efficiency of 17.1 percent as certified by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
“Nanosolar has proven that it continues to effectively execute on its product roadmap and has established itself as a provider of world-class solar solutions,” concludes Eugenia Corrales, CEO of Nanosolar.
Sharp’s concentrated triple-junction compound semiconductor solar cell with conversion efficiency of 43.5%
Compound solar cells utilise photo-absorption layers made from compounds consisting of two or more elements, such as indium and gallium. The basic structure of this latest triple-junction compound solar cell uses Sharp’s proprietary technology that enables efficient stacking of the three photo-absorption layers, with InGaAs as the bottom layer.
Sharp III-V solar cell equals conversion efficiency record of 43.5%
The firm’s concentrator triple-junction indium gallium arsenide compound solar cell has matched the conversion efficiency achieved by Solar Junction in 2011
Sharp has achieved what it claims is the world’s highest solar cell conversion efficiency of 43.5% using a concentrator triple-junction compound semiconductor solar cell. The result is reported for May 30th, 2012, for concentrator solar cells at the research level, based on a survey by Sharp. The conversion efficiency was confirmed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy (ISE) in April 2012 under a light-concentrating magnification of 306 times. With a cell surface of approximately 0.167 cm2, the conversion efficiency is the same as that achieved by U.S. firm Solar Junction in March 2011. These III-V based solar cells are used in a lens-based concentrator system that focuses sunlight on the cells to generate electricity.
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net July 2012
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