Solar Junction Commercial-Ready CPV Cell Achieves 41.4% Efficiency, Confirms NREL
Solar Junction announced that, just one month after achieving 40.9% efficiency, the company has now reached 41.4% on a production cell; both milestones have been validated by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The significance of the advancement belies the speed at which the company is hitting efficiency milestones for a standard commercial-ready production cell, moving the industry beyond champion cell gains.
Concurrently, the company is on a short list of finalists chosen for post-selection due diligence within the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Loan Guarantee Program (LGP). The grant would support the commissioning of Solar Junction’s high-volume, 250-MW capacity manufacturing facility co-located with its headquarters in San Jose, California. Solar Junction expects to begin shipping commercial cells this year.
"As the debate over PV versus CPV continues, we contend that with double the efficiency of traditional photovoltaics, the CPV sector is entering a high-growth period," said Jim Weldon, CEO of Solar Junction. "These recent NREL results reflect our continued commitment to efficiency gains and validate the advantages of our A-SLAM™ technology for the CPV sector."
Solar Junction’s cell, which incorporates the proprietary adjustable spectrum lattice-matched, A-SLAM technology, accelerates the multi-junction cell annual efficiency increase in a customer-integrable and commercial form factor. The company’s cells deliver market-leading efficiency both in a 5.5 x 5.5mm aperture area form factor, the dominant cell for CPV module manufacturers, as well as in a variety of other larger and smaller sizes.
The LGP post-selection due diligence comes a year after Solar Junction announced receiving a PV Incubator contract from the DOE. The efficiency gains of its solar cells relate to the work as part of the Incubator subcontract with NREL. Once the LGP post-selection due diligence process is complete, Solar Junction will ramp its in-house manufacturing capacity to meet the needs of CPV module manufacturers.
