Australian startup Sundrive creates world’s most efficient commercial-sized solar cell by replacing expensive silver with affordable copper during manufacturing.
Efficiency is a big deal when it comes to solar and refers to the amount of power you generate based on the amount of sunlight coming in. A decade ago commercial-sized solar cells had an efficiency rating of about 14 to 16%, but Sundrive’s cell achieved 25.54% efficiency as certified by Germany’s Institute For Solar Energy Research Hamlin.
Sundrive’s founders, Vince Allen and David Hu, did it by replacing silver with copper, which is 100 times cheaper than silver, is more abundant globally and uses less energy in making the cells.
“We see ourselves as having a technology that will help the industry grow to its next stage with more efficient silicon solar cells and we see an opportunity to be at the forefront of the next solar adoption wave,” Mr Allen said.
“We’re planning to have a commercial-sized module containing our solar cells at the end of this year, which is representative of what we could put on a roof or in a solar farm,” Mr Allen added.
At the same time the U.S. Department of Energy has just awarded $1M to a company there that is making a new copper paste designed to replace expensive silver components in solar panels.
The Louisville, Kentucky-based Bert Thin Films said their paste, named CuBert, maintains the durability of silver paste, and can be seamlessly integrated into existing manufacturing processes and equipment in use today by solar panel makers.