Multijunction Photovoltaic Technologies for High-Performance Concentrators

Multijunction solar cells provide high-performance technology pathways leading to potentially low-cost electricity generated from concentrated sunlight. The National Center for Photovoltaics at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has funded different III-V multijunction solar cell technologies and various solar concentration approaches. Within this group of projects, III-V solar cell efficiencies of 41% are close at hand and will likely be reported in these conference proceedings. Companies with well-developed solar concentrator structures foresee installed system costs of $3/watt-half of today's costs-within the next 2 to 5 years as these high-efficiency photovoltaic technologies are incorporated into their concentrator photovoltaic systems. These technology improvements are timely as new large-scale multi-megawatt markets, appropriate for high performance PV concentrators, open around the world