Canadian Solar Sets New Solar Cell Efficiency Record

I think I need to start a page of solar records and just keep it updated as each new announcement comes out. The latest solar record, after a spurt of other solar record announcements, reportedly sets “the highest performance reached to date for a P-type mono-crystalline cell.”

It was no independently confirmed, but was set in-house by Canadian Solar just before Intersolar Europe (next week).

“In-house tests found that its proprietary mono ELPS solar cell efficiency reached 21.1 percent,” the company wrote in a news release yesterday.

“Canadian Solar’s ELPS cells feature a Metal Wrap Through (MWT) design, which moves the front busbars to the back of the cells allowing 3% more light absorption per cell. As a result, ELPS modules deliver up to 7% more electricity than similar configuration conventional solar modules. The ELPS module is nominated for the Intersolar Award 2012 in photovoltaics category.”

If you are interested, read more on Canadian Solar’s website.

Some of the other recent records I was mentioning above are discussed here:

• Sharp Hits Concentrator Solar Cell Efficiency Record, 43.5%
• New Graphene Solar Cell Efficiency Record
• In-Depth: Germany’s 22 GW Solar Energy Record
• MiaSolé Sets New World Record for Flexible PV Module Efficiency
• Flexible CIGS Solar Panel Efficiency Record Set by SoloPower