OSAKA, 31 May (Xinhua) -- Japanese electronics manufacturer Sharp Corporation announced Thursday its technical team achieved the world's highest solar cell conversion efficiency of 43.5 percent using a concentrator triple-junction compound solar cell.
According to Sharp, the measurement of the world's best concentrating conversion efficiency was confirmed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems in Germany.
The maker said the basic structure of this latest triple- junction compound solar cell was based on the company's technology that enables efficient stacking of the three photo- absorption layers, with InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide) as the bottom layer while the solar cell was set in a lens-based concentrator system that focuses sunlight on the cells to generate electricity.
The Osaka-based company stressed its technical team successfully utilized the cell's ability to efficiently convert sunlight collected via three photo-absorption layers into electricity, also optimizing the spacing between electrodes on the surface of the concentrator cell and minimized the cell's electrical resistance.
While compound solar cells have been widely used on space satellites because of their high conversion efficiency, the new technology is expected to be applied to various concentrator photovoltaic power systems that can generate electricity using small-surface-area solar cells and make them practical for terrestrial use, the company said.