35% efficiency for thin film solar panels in 3 years

Lab demo of multiband photovoltaic device was showed.

As you might know, the usual photovoltaic panes are efficient between 15-20%. It’s because the light spectrum is limited, and the rays falling out of the spectrum are not converted to electricity. But this might change soon.

The demonstration was done using RSLE’s IBand technology and is the first known intermediate band solar cell reduced to practice in a laboratory demonstration.

Thin film solar cells have two main advantages: cheaper to manufacture than a traditional silicon solar panels , and in addition are flexible and easily adaptable to any surface. Unfortunately, until now faced with efficiency up to about 9%.

But with the technology of RSLE, the iBand technology makes it possible to compose several thin film solar cells ,each of which captures a different part of the solar spectrum. The experimental samples were produced by using commercially available technology, so production could begin relatively soon.

The company said that this technology illustrates great promise for high efficiency thin film solar efficiencies above 35% by potentially capturing the full spectrum of the sun’s spectrum. The intermediate band solar cell developed by RSLE, is a thin film technology based on the discovery of highly mismatched alloys.

Source: RSLE