World record in solar energy

UNSW achieves highest efficiency ever for sunlight conversion

Solar scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have set a world first for converting sunlight into electricity.

The team from the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP) converted more than 40% of the sunlight hitting a solar cell into electricity, the highest efficiency ever reported.

The ACAP team is also responsible for creating the first photovoltaic system to convert sunlight to electricity with more than 20% efficiency in 1989.

“We used commercial solar cells, but in a new way, so these efficiency improvements are readily accessible to the solar industry,” said Dr Mark Keevers, the UNSW solar scientist who managed the project.

“The new results are based on the use of focused sunlight, and are particularly relevant to photovoltaic (PV) power towers being developed in Australia,” said Professor Martin Green, UNSW Scientia Professor and Director of the ACAP.

Australian company RayGen, which provided design and technical support for the high efficiency prototype, is keen to develop large-scale solar towers using arrays of mirrors to focus sunlight on photovoltaic cells.