Suntech lays claim to solar world record

A Chinese company has this week claimed its multi-crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) modules have broken the world record for solar conversion rates and that the feat has been independently verified.

Wuxi-based Suntech Power Holdings attests that its commercial-grade module converts light into power at an efficiency rate of 15.6 per cent, which beats the previous record of 15.5 per cent set by US organisation Sandia National Labs last year with its aperture-only, frameless module.

Suntech's record includes the framed area of the module, without which the company believes it could hit conversion rates of more than 16 per cent. The firm said the modules are powered by so-called Pluto PV cells and are already available commercially.

It added that it was now aiming to ship between 10MW and 15MW-worth of the modules during 2009.

The suppliers' claims were independently tested by Germany's applied research body the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems and accepted by scientific journal Progress in Photovoltaics (PIP).

Professor Martin Green, research director of the ARC PV Centre of Excellence at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and member of the PIP committee, said that attempting to improve the conversion efficiency of multi-crystalline silicon modules had proved challenging for the industry.

But he offered a ringing endorsement of Suntech's world-beating claims, adding that "I can confirm that the 15.6 per cent multi-crystalline module result is the highest known conversion efficiency measured by a PIP-recognised test centre".

In May, Suntech said it planned to start manufacturing its PV modules in the US and a month later secured a $50m (£30m) convertible loan with the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. The money will be used to fund further development of its Pluto technology and to refinance existing debt.