Optimum solar cell

QuantaSol, a UK designer and manufacturer of strain-balanced quantum-well solar cells, has developed what it believes to be the most efficient single-junction solar cell ever manufactured.

QuantaSol's single-junction device has been independently tested by Fraunhofer ISE as achieving 28.3 per cent efficiency.

QuantaSol was established in June 2007 as a spin-out of Imperial College London to commercialise the university’s solar cell IP and offer devices to concentrator photovoltaic (PV) systems developers.

'This is the first time that anyone has successfully combined high efficiency with ease of manufacture, historically a bugbear of the solar-cell industry,' said Kevin Arthur, QuantaSol’s chief executive. 'We’re now gearing up to provide multi-junction cells of even higher efficiencies as early as Q1 2010.'

The company, which has a development laboratory in Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey, completed a £2m second funding round last week. It will now concentrate on cutting the cost of ownership of solar energy by moving to multi-junction devices.