Air Force contracts with Emcore for high-efficiency solar cells

Albuquerque, N.M.-based Emcore (NASDAQ:EMKR) secured a $5.7 million contract today from the Air Force Research Laboratory to develop high-efficiency photovoltaic solar cells. The lab is located on the Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.

The contract is expected to enable Emcore—which provides compound semiconductor-based components and systems for the fiber optic and solar power markets—to further develop its inverted metamorphic PV technology.

The two-year contract calls for Emcore to demonstrate high-efficiency solar cells in space applications and to explore advanced PV devices based on inverted metamorphic (IMM) structures. The contract includes a provision for an additional 12-month award of $3.4 million for advanced IMM development, once the base contract is finished. Funding for the whole contract has already been appropriated, according to a news release.

“Emcores’s IMM cells represent a significant leap in photovoltaic cell development, and we believe this contract will allow Emcore to demonstrate industry leading cell efficiency of 37 percent,” said Emcore’s COO Christopher Larocca, in the release. “This level of efficiency, combined with the lightweight and flexible properties of our cell, will enable significantly broader space and terrestrial photovoltaic applications."

However, 37 percent wouldn't actually lead the industry, as researchers at the Freiburg, Germany-based Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems said in January they developed a solar cell with a record-breaking efficiency of 41.4 percent (see Solar with 41-percent efficiency?).

Emcore’s competition in the concentrated PV space comes from companies including Germany’s Concentrix Solar, Taiwan’s Arima EcoEnergy Technologies, and Mountain View, Calif.’s SolFocus, which recently received International Electrotechnical Commission approval for its concentrated PV panels (see IEC gives SolFocus CPV panels a stamp of approval).

Emcore has secured numerous contracts for its solar products, including a definitive agreement to supply $28 million in solar cell receivers to ES System, based in Gwang-Ju, South Korea (see Emcore to supply solar cell receivers to ES System).

In 2008, Emcore received a $39 million follow-on order for solar cell receiver assemblies to be deployed in South Australia-based Green and Gold Energy's SunCube concentrator photovoltaic systems (see Emcore gets $39M follow-on solar order).

Cleantech developments making news in the past 24 hours

• Metabolix, ADM to open new bioplastics factory
• Rockwool nears construction on Indian insulation factory
• Two Israeli wastewater firms to locate in Michigan
• Al Gore: Super grid is critical to combating the climate crisis

View the last week of cleantech developments here | Subscribe to full feed