Gallium Arsenide Solar Panel Efficiency

When it comes to the efficiency of the photovoltaic industry it is inseparable from theoretical efficiency and mass production efficiency.

Gallium arsenide solar panel efficiency.

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. Taken together they are the largest representation of solar in space occupying enough area to cover most of a football field. Instead of being constructed from solid silicon wafers like mono or poly crystalline solar panels amorphous panels are made by depositing non crystalline silicon on a substrate like glass plastic or metal one layer of silicon on an amorphous solar panel can be as thin. This is a superior property of gallium arsenide.

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 makes them a good candidate for a stacked type of solar panels used for collecting light from all across the spectrum. In a recent article in the magazine electronic news gallium arsenide was tested on a germanium substrate.

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. The same company has now set an efficiency record for an entire solar panel at 23 5 percent. Alta devices gallium arsenide solar research cells have been certified with a 29 1 efficiency setting a new single junction solar cell efficiency record. Solar cells and detectors gallium arsenide is an important semiconductor material for high cost high efficiency solar cells and is used for single crystalline thin film solar cells and for multi junction solar cells.

The first known operational use of gaas solar cells in space was for the venera 3 mission launched in 1965. Gallium arsenide solar cells can reach a top efficiency of 27 80. The record was independently confirmed by the national renewable energy laboratory part of the department of energy.