July 31, 2007 – Vol. 12 No.19

Energy Focus Helps Achieve Record Solar Cell Efficiency with Light-Concentrating Optics.

A breakthrough milestone of a 42.8% efficiency solar cell was achieved by the Very High Efficiency Solar Consortium (VHESC) at the Unversity of Delaware, part of the R&D work Energy Focus has been involved with through a DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Project Agency) contract.

Roger Buelow, chief technology officer of Energy Focus commented, "With Dr.Allen Barnett, University of Delaware professor of electrical and computer engineering, the project's principal investigator, we believe that this is a major step in reaching our 50% or greater efficiency goal. With efficiencies three to four times that of today's solar products, this milestone highlights the potential for commercial solar installations to have pay back periods of less than three years, compared to the decade or so long ROI we are seeing today. There is still a ways to go to get to commercialization of the VHESC device, but we are excited about the opportunity to help accelerate solar's move into the mainstream."

The highly efficient VHESC solar cell uses a novel lateral optical concentrating system that splits sunlight into three different energy bins in order to optimize absorption and conversion. The stationary VHESC optical system is capable of absorbing large amounts of light without the use of a complicated tracking device.

Energy Focus, Inc. (formerly Fiberstars) is a supplier of fiber optic lighting.(8/2/07)

Links:

Energy Focus http://www.energyfocusinc.com/

Disclaimer, Forward-Looking or Safe Harbor Statement on original press release: Yes

| Front Page | Events | Archives / Resources | Publications | About / Contact | Subscriptions / RSS | Products / Services | Requests for Proposals / Funding Opportunities |
 

Copyright 1996 - 2007 Green Energy News Inc