The record-breaking result has been independently certified by two of the world's leading solar cell testing centres: the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) in Germany.
"Recently, NREL verified 18% efficiency which is a very significant achievement," said Martha Symko-Davies, senior program manager at NREL. "We also are pleased that Innovalight has recently been awarded a $3 million Technology Incubator subcontract through the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, funded under the Department of Energy," she added.
Innovalight's proprietary silicon ink and processing technologies allow crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturers to dramatically boost output capacity, solar cell performance as well as reduce costs with a simplified additional step to already installed manufacturing lines. Crystalline silicon solar cell technology accounts for 86% of the commercial solar panel market today, according to Paula Mints, principal analyst for Navigant Consulting, Inc., a leading solar industry research firm.
"Innovalight's silicon ink and processing technologies provide a compelling solution in an otherwise undifferentiated marketplace for solar cells," said Homer Antoniadis, chief technology officer for Innovalight. "Optimized for use with industry standard deposition tools, Innovalight's solution improves the economics of solar cell manufacturing," he added.
Innovalight is currently working with a number of solar cell manufacturing companies and is ramping production of silicon ink at its site in Sunnyvale, California (US). The company is developing technologies based on silicon ink to ultimately bring conversion efficiencies of crystalline silicon solar cells to over 20%.
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