Best Research-Cell Efficiencies

52
Multijunction Cells (2-terminal, monolithic) Thin-Film Technologies See https://www.nrel.gov/pv/assets/pdfs/cell_efficiency_explanatory_notes.pdf Sharp
LM = lattice matched CIGS (concentrator) (IMM, 302x) Soitec
for key to company/laboratory/organization acronyms & abbreviations. Boeing-
48 MM = metamorphic CIGS Spectrolab
(4-J, 297x)
IMM = inverted, metamorphic CdTe SolarJunc
(LM, 364x) (LM, 942x) FhG-ISE/ Soitec 46.0%
Three-junction (concentrator) Amorphous Si:H (stabilized) Spectrolab FhG-ISE SpireSemicon
Three-junction (non-concentrator) NREL
44 Two-junction (concentrator)
Emerging PV (MM, 299x) (MM, 454x) (MM, 406x) 44.4%
Dye-sensitized cells Boeing-Spectrolab Boeing-Spectrolab NREL
Two-junction (non-concentrator) Soitec (4-J, 327x)
Perovskite cells (not stabilized) (MM,179x) (MM, 240x) (4-J, 319x)
Four-junction or more (concentrator) Organic cells (various types) Boeing-
SolarJunc
40 Four-junction or more (non-concentrator) Organic tandem cells NREL (IMM) NREL
(LM, 418x) Spectrolab (5-J)
NREL (IMM, 325.7x) 38.8%
Single-Junction GaAs Inorganic cells (CZTSSe) Boeing- Sharp (IMM) 37.9%
Quantum dot cells Boeing- Spectrolab Sharp (IMM)
Single crystal
36 Concentrator
(various types) Spectrolab
Boeing- NREL
Sharp (IMM) FhG-ISE
NREL (38.1x) 35.5%
Spectrolab (IMM)
Thin-film crystal NREL/ Spectrolab
Spectrolab Spectrolab NREL (467x) NREL (MM) LG
Crystalline Si Cells Japan Spectrolab
32.8%
32 Alta
Single crystal (concentrator) Varian NREL Energy IES-UPM (1026x) FhG-ISE (117x) NREL
Efficiency (%)

Single crystal (non-concentrator) NREL Alta LG

(216x) Alta
Multicrystalline Radboud U. SunPower (large-area) 29.3%
Varian Varian FhG-ISE Alta
Silicon heterostructures (HIT) (205x) Amonix Panasonic LG 28.9%
28 Thin-film crystal NREL
SunPower (96x) (92x) (232x) LG 27.8%
Stanford Panasonic Kaneka Kaneka ISFH 27.6%
(140x) Kopin Radboud U. FhG-ISE Alta FhG-ISE 26.6%
Varian UNSW UNSW
Panasonic Solexel ZSW SolarFron 26.1%
24 Spire UNSW UNSW
UNSW
Sanyo Sanyo NREL (15.4x)
NREL (14.7x) First Solar ISCAS KRICT 23.3%
IBM FhG-ISE Sanyo 23.3%
UNSW UNSW UNSW Sanyo ZSW FhG-ISE
(T.J. Watson Stanford NREL Sanyo EMPA (Flex poly) NREL
UNSW / 22.9%
UNSW (14x) ZSW KRICT/UNIST 22.3%
Research Center) Georgia Eurosolare FhG-ISE 22.1%
20 ARCO Georgia Georgia Tech
ISFH First Solar 21.2%
Tech Tech NREL Solexel KRICT
Westing- Spire Varian UNSW NREL NREL NREL NREL EPFL
house NREL NREL U. Stuttgart FhG-ISE Solibro Trina
NREL SolarFron
Sandia First Solar GE First
16 RCA
No. Carolina
U. So.
Florida Matsushita NREL
Solar GE
U. Stuttgart KRICT
Mobil State U. SolarexSolarex NREL UniSolar Mitsubishi EPFL AIST AIST NREL ICCAS 14.0%
Boeing (aSi/ncSi/ncSi) LG 13.4%
Solar NREL Euro-CIS UniSolar UniSolar IBM HKUST 12.6%
Kodak ARCO ARCO NIMS Sharp IBM UCLA
12 Boeing
Kodak Kodak Boeing Sharp UCLA
12.6%
11.9%
Photon Energy EPFL
Kodak AMETEK IBM IBM Phillips 66 11.5%
Matsushita Boeing UCLA-Sumitomo
Boeing EPFL U.Toronto
Solarex ARCO Konarka
8 U.of Maine
Monosolar UniSolar Solarmer Heliatek MIT U.Toronto
NREL / Konarka Konarka UCLA
Boeing RCA EPFL Sumi- U.Toronto
U.of Maine Groningen U. Linz (PbS-QD)
EPFL tomo

(Rev. 07-17-2018)
4 Siemens
Plextronics Heliatek
RCA U. Linz U. Dresden NREL
RCA RCA RCA U. Linz
(ZnO/PbS-QD)
RCA RCA
0
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