Gaas circuits and devices are far more expensive than silicon and they require their own manufacturing process so you won t find them in typical consumer solar panels.
Gaas solar panel.
Gallium arsenide is an important semiconductor material for high cost high efficiency solar cells and is used for single crystalline thin film solar cells and for multi junction solar cells.
Unlike traditional solar panels gallium arsenide thin film solar cells have the advantages of flexibility flexibility light weight adjustable color and shape plasticity.
The resulting efficiency level was 24 9 for a single junction.
This makes them a good candidate for a stacked type of solar panels used for collecting light from all across the spectrum.
Cubesat gaas solar panel nanoavionics gaas triple junction gainp gainas ge epitaxial structure solar arrays are made of high performance triple junction space grade solar cells that enable missions with high power requirements.
Gallium arsenide solar cells can have roughly 25 efficiency rating with only one junction.
The average size of solar panels used in a rooftop solar installation is approximately 65 inches by 39 inches or 5 4 feet by 3 25 feet.
All solar cells include the latest triple and quadruple junction technology where gainp gaas ge layers are grown on a germanium substrate and the whole product range benefits from many years experience on the space market.
When the limitations of silicon are highlighted gaas is a good direction.
Spectrolab manufactures and tests fully integrated solar panels for commercial civil and defense missions.
Azur space has already delivered over 1 5 million triple junction gaas solar cells to a wide range of customers.
In a recent article in the magazine electronic news gallium arsenide was tested on a germanium substrate.
Gallium arsenide gaas is the highest performance solar material currently available boasting conversion efficiencies in excess of 40 nearly double those of crystalline silicon.
This is a superior property of gallium arsenide.
There is some variation from brand to brand and if you re installing a large scale solar panel system such as for a warehouse or a municipal building your panels will be closer to 6 feet long.
Spectrolab offers a range of gainp gaas ge lattice matched 3j solar cells with efficiencies reaching 32.
All 3j technologies are fully aiaa s111 and s112 qualified.
But they are unbeatable for their efficiency even at high temperatures and concentrated sunlight.
This means that it can produce nearly twice as much power in a given surface area.