Thin Film Takes Solar Efficiency Crown

Re: Thin Film Takes Solar Efficiency Crown

RSSfeed wrote: »

German*researchers have broken the*record for thin-film PV efficiency,*achieving*20.8%.

"Takes the crown?" There are plenty of crystalline cells that are well over 25% efficient! Not to mention multijunction cells that are now over 40%.

Re: Thin Film Takes Solar Efficiency Crown

stephendv wrote: »

They meant takes the crown out of all thin-film modules.

"This milestone is especially important because it is the first time thin-film has exceeded the efficiency of standard multicrystalline silicon solar, which currently reaches 20.4% for peak performance."

You can compare lab cells to lab cells or commercial cells to commercial cells. But in this case they are comparing lab thin film to commercial crystalline, which isn't a fair comparison.

(It's definitely good that lab efficiency is increasing, but after seeing about 20 years worth of breakthrough announcements like this, I will wait until it's demonstrated to be commercially viable before getting too excited.)