While these stories on solar efficiency going up and up might become as repetitive as Al Gore on the cover of magazines, they’re still an important reminder that R&D, investments, and technology are moving ever forward in this industry.

It was announced today that the University of Delaware has achieved 42.8% efficiency with a silicon solar cell in the conversion of sunlight to energy. The previous record-holder of 40.7% efficiency may make this seem ho-hum, but this latest achievement allows for a much broader range of applications. How so? The earlier technology reached 40% using a solar cell with a thickness of almost one foot! The new process allows over 42% while keeping the cell to just under 1 centimeter. A massive difference indeed! From the article,

"This is a major step toward our goal of 50 percent efficiency,’ Barnett said. ‘The percentage is a record under any circumstance, but it’s particularly noteworthy because it’s at low concentration, approximately 20 times magnification. The low profile and lack of moving parts translates into portability, which means these devices easily could go on a laptop computer or a rooftop.’ Honsberg said the advance of 2 percentage points is noteworthy in a field where gains of 0.2 percent are the norm and gains of 1 percent are seen as significant breakthroughs."

Current solar arrays — lie the ones you might increasingly be seeing on rooftops — have commercially peaked at 17%. This latest breakthrough — which Dupont and the University are working to bring to market by 2010 — would allow the same energy output in less than half the space. Beautiful! Let’s hope price drops follow efficiency increases. One can dream, one can dream…

For more information on the achievement, please click here.