Toshiba Home Solar Power Modules Get 19.3% Conversion Efficiency

September 9th, 2011 by Charis Michelsen

With so many different companies producing solar cells and solar arrays, it’s a pretty competitive field. Toshiba’s 22.6% conversion efficiency ranks near the top – in the lab. Toshiba has stated its results in the field, so to speak, are at 19.3% conversion efficiency, putting its Residential Solar Module 240W right at the top.

Toshiba’s set-up uses American SunPower solar cells, with a rear contact monocrystalline system. To reduce the loss of reflected light, it uses coated glass, which increases the active area by approximately 3% for a 240W maximum output.

Because more power is generated over the same surface area, Toshiba’s customers can either opt for a smaller array with the same power output or use the same surface area as their competitors to gather a stated 40% power increase over the course of a year. Using the excess energy buyback program, energy costs can go way down.

My question is, when will they start sticking solar panels onto their nifty laptops?

Source: Kankyo Business
Image Credit: Some rights reserved by digitpedia

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Tags: Electricity, Energy, home solar panels, Japan, quickies, residential solar array, residential solar module, solar array, solar module, Sunpower, toshiba

About the Author

Charis Michelsen spent 7 years living in Germany and Japan, studying both languages extensively, doing translation and education with companies like Bosch, Nissan, Fuji Heavy, and others. Charis has a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and currently lives in Chicago, Illinois. She also believes that Janeway was the best Star Trek Captain.

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Anonymous

1. Why are the cells mounted so high that the above tile partially shades it?

2. Would you want to leave your laptop out in the sun while the battery charged?
- http://soltesza.wordpress.com/ sola
  
  Yes, the panel placement is pretty weird on those images.
  
  I am not even sure that the image and the article belong together. The article talks about 240Wp modules which is obviously not the case with the above tiles.
- http://ecdfan.blogspot.com/ ECD Fan
  
  Bob_Wallace: The spam filter didn’t like my original post. The solar tiles pictured here are not Toshiba’s. They belong to a company called Tegolasolare/AREA. URL is http://www.areaindustrie.it/tegolasolare Tegolasolare/AREA apparently failed in marketing this product, for obvious reasons (the shadows kill performance, the rain creates shortcurcuits, and the cost to manufacture these 4-cell modules is horrendous):
  - Anonymous
    
    Hey,
    
    Sorry, all comments with links get caught & must be moderated. The image has been changed out now. I’m not sure if it was a legal reuse, but it clearly wasn’t the right image choice. Unfortunately, I’m out of town and don’t have much time to look into this further but have a slightly more appropriate image up now.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Z
  - Anonymous
    
    That tile picture did not suggest a workable solution to me. I can see why the market didn’t like it.
    
    —
    
    I’m watching for the first company that introduces a ‘full roof’ system where people with south-facing “side away from street” roofs can be tuned into a great big solar array.
    
    Build the house with the proper slope on that part of the roof, install roof sheeting, and screw down a weather-tight solar skin.
    
    Build the roof trusses with ‘crawl space’ or better access to the bottom of the connection boxes. All the wiring would be inside the house skin and fully protected from weather.
    
    Include skylight and door sections which could be added as desired. Opening skylights or doors which would give access to cleaning off the panels if needed.
    
    Set owners up as providers for the utility companies. Or sell the houses with long term roof leases not unlike the way farmers and ranches lease land for wind turbines.
    
    That would make one’s home cheaper to own, home as income producer. And it would distribute a lot of electricity to surrounding homes, cutting down on transmission needs.