Australian researchers have contributed to yet another world record for solar conversion efficiency, with researchers from the University of New South Wales involved in the production of new ultra-high efficiency gallium arsenide solar cells. In a research paper published in the journal Advanced Energy Materials, the team of researchers from the University of New South Wales and the US-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory detailed how using gallium arsenide based semiconductors, solar energy conversion efficiencies of 32.9 per cent were achieved.
In fact, the UNSW-NREL team successfully achieved two new world records for solar efficiency, having produced two configurations of gallium arsenide solar cells that achieved new conversion efficiency records, including a single-junction solar cell with a 27.2 per cent efficiency, and a ‘tandem’ solar cell design that sandwiches together too different configurations, with an efficiency of 32.9 per cent. Gallium arsenide solar cells work on on the same fundamental basis as conventional silicon-based solar cells, but the use of the different materials allows for much higher conversion efficiencies to be achieved, as […]
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