Fraunhofer ISE Develops World’s Most Efficient Solar Cell with 47.6 Percent Efficiency
06 July 2022: Researchers at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, using a new antireflection coating, have successfully increased the efficiency of the best four-junction solar cell to date from 46.1 to 47.6 percent at a concentration of 665 suns. This is a global milestone, as there is currently no solar cell with a higher efficiency worldwide.
For the last two years, Fraunhofer ISE has been working on an ambitious project called “50 Percent”. The aim of the project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action BMWK, is to develop a solar cell with 50 percent efficiency for the first time. To achieve this, each individual layer of the complex multi-junction solar cell undergoes further optimization. Improvements in the process technology are incorporated for metal contacts and antireflection layers. Now the project team has achieved a first breakthrough: Their latest solar cell under concentrated sunlight achieves an efficiency of 47.6 percent.
“We are thrilled with this result, which was achieved only one year after the opening of our new Center for High Efficiency Solar Cells,” says Dr. Frank Dimroth, department head of III-V Photovoltaics and Concentrator Technology at Fraunhofer ISE. “In our research, we aim to make concentrating photovoltaics even more efficient and competitive, as we believe that this is the most sustainable form of renewable electricity generation.”
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