Solar firm aims to break efficiency record
Low Carbon Accelerator Limited (LCA) has announced that it has made a further investment of £320,000 in QuantaSol Limited (QuantaSol). This brings LCA's total equity ownership to 25.6 per cent.
LCA invested £480,000 in June 2007 as part of an overall £1.35 million seed funding round which also included investment from Imperial Innovations, Numis Securities Ltd, Netscientific Ltd, and Sheffield University Enterprise. Low Carbon Accelerator and Imperial Innovations were co-lead equity investors.
QuantaSol will provide solar photovoltaic (PV) cells for use in concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) systems for the fast growing utility-scale solar power generation market.
Quantasol used the original funds to produce prototypes of its Quantum Well Photovoltaic (QWPV) cells and to engage with potential customers for such cells and will use the additional funds to continue their product development.
CPV systems use relatively inexpensive optics such as mirrors or lenses to concentrate or focus light from a broad collection area onto a much smaller area of active semiconductor PV cell material.
Since the PV semiconductor material usually dominates the costs of a solar PV system, reducing the amount of PV material required to capture a given amount of sunlight leads to substantially lower system cost and cost per watt of output.
QuantaSol's third generation cells are based on gallium arsenide and other semiconductor materials. These materials are more expensive than silicon, which is commonly used for flat panel PV cells, but have more than double the photovoltaic efficiency. QuantaSol plans t per cent as opposed to silicon and thin film cells whose efficiencies are below 20 per cent.
Currently, the world efficiency record for single junction cells, held by the US company Varian, stands at 27.8 per cent and has been unequalled for 20 years. However, Quantasol's cells are consistently recording efficiency levels of 27.5 per cent and the management team are confident of reaching levels equal to or in excess of the world record during 2008.
Kevin Arthur, CEO of Quantasol, said: "The world record for solar efficiency was a real one-off and our results consistently come very close to equalling that. With the new round of funding in place we are confident of setting a new efficiency record for single junction cells during 2008. The Quantum Wells also make it possible to enhance the efficiency of multi-junction cells and, during 2008, QuantaSol also aims to set a record 35 per cent tandem cell efficiency."
<a href="http://www.lowcarbonaccelerator.com"target=_blank>QuantaSol</a>
