CEA-INES researchers and Enel have developed a new solar cell with an active surface area of 9 cm² and an open circuit voltage of over 1,900 mV. Their results improved on the 26.5% efficiency achieved in March for similar cells.
The device, which has an active area of 9 cm², has an open-circuit voltage of more than 1,900 mV, CEA-INES said, noting that the device improvement was again due to “shading correction.” It did not disclose other technical details.
“CEA and 3SUN had already presented first-class results in April 2022 with 24.9%, then 25.8% in December 2022 and 26.5% in March 2023 for the same PIN architecture tandem cell,” CEA-INES said in a statement. .
Enel Green Power, through its 3Sun unit, is investing in an n-type heterojunction cell (HJT) with an efficiency of 25.5% in a new 3 GW solar module factory now under construction in Catania, southern Italy. It recently said that this could lead to module efficiencies of over 24%. From 2026, Enel Green Power plans to offer even more efficient solar modules based on tandem silicon-perovskite cells. The end products are said to reach an efficiency of about 30 percent.
CEA-INES and Enel Green Power have jointly developed DC/DC maximum power point tracking devices (MPPT). They said they are now also working on highly efficient bifacial PV panels. Additionally, they claim to have achieved 24.47% power conversion efficiency for a gallium-doped p-type heterojunction silicon solar cell in March 2022.
