Has the most efficient single junction solar cell arrived?

UK’s QuantaSol said today it has developed what it believes is the most efficient single junction solar cell ever manufactured.

Developed in two years, QuantaSol’s single-junction device has been independently tested by solar energy research center Fraunhofer ISE and can achieve 28.3 percent efficiency illuminated by 500 times concentrated sun light, according to a news release.

Established in 2007, the Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey-based company designs and manufactures strain-balanced quantum-well solar cells. The spinout from Imperial College London was designed to commercialize the university’s solar cell intellectual property and offer devices to concentrator photovoltaic (PV) systems developers.

"This is the first time that anyone has successfully combined high efficiency with ease of manufacture, historically a bug-bear of the solar cell industry," said QuantaSol’s CEO Kevin Arthur, in the release. "We’re now gearing up to provide multi-junction cells of even higher efficiencies as early as Q1 2010."

The company’s approach combines several nanostructures from different alloys to achieve synthetic crystals that prevail over current solar cell designs and also improve PV conversion efficiency, according to QuantaSol.

In May, UK-based QuantaSol raised £1.35 million ($2.03 million) from previous investors Low Carbon Accelerator, Imperial Innovations, Numis Securities, Netscientific and Sheffield University Enterprise (see Please sir, may I have some Mohr? and Extreme makeover: Solar edition?).

Low Carbon Accelerator has invested £480,000 for a 15.34 percent equity stake. QuantaSol previously raised £1.7 million (see Performance monitoring pulls in more cash). With the recent funding, QuantaSol said it plans to focus on reducing the cost of ownership of solar energy by moving to multi-junction devices.

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