The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) announced its solar subsidiary Spectrolab has started mass production of its newest concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) solar cell, the C3MJ+.
With an average conversion efficiency of 39.2%, C3MJ+ will be the industry’s highest-efficiency cell, the company said.
The new cells improve on the C3MJ cells currently in production, which convert 38.5% of the sun’s rays into electricity.
"These more efficient cells are drawing interest from a number of current and potential customers," said Russ Jones, Spectrolab director of CPV Business Development. "Last year we set a new world record for efficiency with a test cell that peaked at 41.6%. We now have entered production with essentially this same technology and plan to deliver the first of these 39.2% efficiency cells in January."
Spectrolab has introduced mass production of a new series of solar cells with increased energy-conversion efficiency each year since 2007.
The current C3MJ series entered production in mid-2009. More than 2 million C3MJ cells have been sold to customers around the world, the company said.
"Given the new cells’ close similarity to our existing production cells, we believe that our current C3MJ customers will be able to easily upgrade for more efficiency," Jones added.
Today, Spectrolab cells power 60% of all satellites orbiting the Earth, as well as the International Space Station. Spectrolab has made significant investments to meet the increasing demand of the terrestrial concentrator photovoltaic industry and expects to achieve a 40% average production efficiency for terrestrial solar cells in 2011.
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