Solar Power Almost as Cheap as Natural Gas in Six States | CleanTechnica

Photo Credit: Johny M on Flickr

In the short time since President Obama’s alternative energy plan was announced, already the prospects look good for clean energy that is cost-competitive with fossil fuel. That’s without even factoring in the avoidable health costs that that the public currently absorbs from high risk, antiquated fuels. The latest case in point is a new high efficiency solar power system out of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Designed with the help of some centuries-old technology, it produces electricity at a competitive rate with natural gas in at least six states.

NREL Multi-Junction Solar Cells

The key to the new system is a high-efficiency solar cell based on “multi-junction” technology. As reported recently on this site, multi-junction solar cells are far more efficient than conventional silicon solar cells. In the recent past they were not particularly cost effective, but that is changing as the technology improves. NREL has been working with the solar company Amonix to integrate multi-junction solar cells with its existing concentrated solar system, the Amonix 7700, which was originally designed for conventional silicon cells.

Super-Efficient Concentrated Solar Power

In the lab, NREL’s cells can convert 41.6 percent of the sunlight they collect to usable energy. NREL notes that production cells always under-achieve lab cells, and the ones produced for the Amonix 7700 are achieving 31 percent per module and 27 percent for the system overall. That’s quite a bit lower but it’s still a respectable figure; in fact, NREL states that it is the highest ever recorded for concentrated solar.

Read more at Clean Technica.