Alta Devices (Booth #848) has created a new solar cell technology that it says weighs less and takes up less area than competing thin-film technologies while providing the same amount of power.



The Sunnyvale, California-based company says it has achieved a solar efficiency of 31.6 percent, a record measured by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Coupled with its size and flexibility, the company says that means more unmanned aircraft can use solar power to fly longer and carry more payload, especially if additional batteries are added onboard.



“Our goal has always been to enable solar power to be useful in configurations and applications that have never before been possible,” says Rich Kapusta, the company’s chief marketing officer. “The UAV application is an important example of how this happens.”



The new record was obtained by modifying Alta’s “single-junction” gallium arsenide material by adding a second junction, or layer, with indium gallium phosphide, which uses high-energy photons more efficiently.

The dual-junction technology will be available in 2017; the single-junction technology, in production, has a solar efficiency record rating of 28.8 percent

<< Back to the News