Research and industry worldwide are working to further reduce the costs of solar electricity and German research is playing a leading role. With its newest solar cell, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE has now exceeded its own world record for multicrystalline solar cells. The record cell converts 22.3 percent of the incident sunlight into electricity.
Multicrystalline silicon, the work horse of the photovoltaic industry, dominates the PV module production worldwide with a market share of 57 percent. In the last few years, the efficiencies of the more expensive monocrystalline solar cells have increased greatly, thus widening the gap between mono and multicrystalline material. At Fraunhofer ISE in Freiburg, the researchers have succeeded in decreasing this efficiency gap by surpassing their own world record efficiency for multicrystalline solar cells which they established just a few months ago. Pushing beyond the magical threshold of 22 percent, their newest solar cell converts 22.3 percent of the incident solar energy into electricity. The researchers affirm that the maximum potential of the material and the cell technology has not yet been realized.
