NREL Releases Interactive Solar Cell Efficiency Chart

• NREL has updated and made its solar cell efficiency chart interactive, making it more informative
• It helps get deeper insights into cell technologies beyond efficiency information alone
• NREL says it will enable researchers communicate the data in a better way by allowing for customized versions to be pulled out

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) under the US government's Department of Energy (DOE) has made interactive its widely renowned and referred solar cell efficiency chart, which it says makes the chart more informative and provides deeper dive into the data.

"There's much more than just the efficiency of a solar cell," said NREL physicist Nikos Kopidakis, who oversees the regularly updated chart. "There's the current, the voltage output, and other parameters and who made the cell. In most cases, now you can mouse over and there is a pop-up showing you additional parameters for that cell. It's more informative."

The static version of the chart, that has been documenting the journey of solar cells and their various technologies for several decades now, only provided the cell efficiency and its maker, available as a PDF download.

In the new interactive version, it allows for a detailed look into the specific time period of the cell efficiency, sift technology specific data, and even compare various technologies. One can even go back decades to pull out relevant data and also create custom charts.

NREL Senior Research Fellow and University of California-Merced Professor Sarah Kurtz added, "It's possible that the NREL efficiency chart is the most presented graph that you can find at the annual PV Specialists Conference and similar conferences. But it has gotten so full that it's difficult to see the data. With the new interactive chart, researchers will be able to still use the data, but present it in a way that communicates better for their talk."

Speaking of solar cell efficiencies, LONGi Solar of China just announced a new world record for silicon solar cell efficiency with 26.81% efficient back contact cell (see LONGi Breaks Long-Time Silicon Solar Cell Record).

Founder and President of LONGi Solar Li Zhenguo will discuss this record milestone with TaiyangNews Managing Director Michael Schmela on day 3 of the TaiyangNews Virtual Flagship Conference on High Efficiency Solar Technologies – TOPCon, HJT and Beyond, Today & Tomorrow taking place from Nov. 23-25, 2022. The conference will have globally leading stakeholders discuss about technology, supply and demand. For free registration, please click here.