Four-junction concentrated solar cell delivers 43.6% yield

Engineers from Soitec, Leti, and Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems have developed a four-junction concentrated solar cell with an energy conversion yield of 43.6%—with the potential to reach yields as high as 50% in the coming years.
Currently the world record is a 44.4% yield, but the technology involved will soon reach its limits. It relies exclusively on epitaxy junctions, which means that once a solar cell has more than three junctions it becomes difficult to combine lattice mismatched crystals without deteriorating material quality.
The engineers were able to overcome this obstacle by using a molecular bonding technology developed by Soitec and Leti. The technology was initially developed on silicon and has recently been applied to solar cell junctions—resulting in multi-junction cells with exceptional efficiency.

Contact: thierry.salvetat@cea.fr

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