Gallium Arsenide Solar Panel Efficiency

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

Gallium arsenide solar panel efficiency.

Alta devices makes solar panels using gallium arsenide cells a more efficient material than the generally cheaper silicon based cells. 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. 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.

Alta devices gallium arsenide solar research cells have been certified with a 29 1 efficiency setting a new single junction solar cell efficiency record. Taken together they are the largest representation of solar in space occupying enough area to cover most of a football field. Like conventional solar panels amorphous solar panels are made from silicon but they are constructed in a different way. The same company has now set an efficiency record for an entire solar panel at 23 5 percent.

This makes them a good candidate for a stacked type of solar panels used for collecting light from all across the spectrum. 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. 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.

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. Gallium arsenide solar cells can have roughly 25 efficiency rating with only one junction. The first known operational use of gaas solar cells in space was for the venera 3 mission launched in 1965.