Gallium Arsenide Solar Panel Efficiency

Gallium arsenide solar cells can reach a top efficiency of 27 80.

Gallium arsenide solar panel efficiency.

The first known operational use of gaas solar cells in space was for the venera 3 mission launched in 1965. This makes them a good candidate for a stacked type of solar panels used for collecting light from all across the spectrum. Gaas solar cells can harness more sunlight than silicon based solar cells because they are made using a soft and silvery metal which can also be found in electronic circuits semiconductor materials and light emitting diodes. Alta devices makes solar panels using gallium arsenide cells a more efficient material than the generally cheaper silicon based cells.

As a runner up multi junction cells made of gallium arsenide and similar materials resist degradation better than silicon and are the most efficient cells currently made with energy conversion efficiencies up to 34. In a recent article in the magazine electronic news gallium arsenide was tested on a germanium substrate. Like conventional solar panels amorphous solar panels are made from silicon but they are constructed in a different way. One of the great advantages of gallium arsenide is that the theoretical efficiency is high almost twice as high as that of crystalline silicon.

Gallium arsenide solar cells can have roughly 25 efficiency rating with only one junction. This is a superior property of gallium arsenide. The record was independently confirmed by the national renewable energy laboratory part of the department of energy. Alta devices gallium arsenide solar research cells have been certified with a 29 1 efficiency setting a new single junction solar cell efficiency record.

The same company has now set an efficiency record for an entire solar panel at 23 5 percent. The australian university of new south wales unsw back around 1985 invented a super efficiency gallium arsenide solar cell these are multiple layered pv cells that converts more rays of sun s energy efficiency to over 40. When it comes to the efficiency of the photovoltaic industry it is inseparable from theoretical efficiency and mass production efficiency.