PROFILE
they will inevitably encounter regions with short days or very low sunlight . This will present hardware challenges and require more efficient solar cells and greater battery storage capacity .
“ You can imagine a government that might want to do surveillance over the polar ice caps ,” Kapusta explains . “ They ’ re going to spend a lot of money making that happen , and that market may be small , but there is going to be a need for higher performance solar cells .”
Developers worldwide are approaching the theoretical limit for solar cell efficiency ,
particularly those using crystalline silicon , the most common PV manufacturing material . Other compounds , including gallium arsenide — Alta ’ s material of choice — have greater efficiency potential . Adding multiple junctions , or layers , to a single cell can also improve its efficiency . Supplementary layers
10 November 2016
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