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SunPower's New Solar Panel Is 22% Efficient

October 18, 2006 | 8 Comments

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San Jose, California [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] SunPower Corporation's newest solar panel, the SPR-315, offers higher power output and conversion efficiency than its current products, by using the company's newly developed 22%-efficient Gen 2 solar cells. It carries a rated power output of 315 watts and is planned for commercial availability in the spring of 2007.

"A typical 4 kilowatt (AC rating) solar system requires 30 conventional 160 watt panels and covers 410 square feet of roof space. Our new SPR 315 panels produce an equivalent amount of power using only 15 solar panels on 265 square feet."

-- Peter Aschenbrenner, SunPower, marketing and sales, VP

Compared with conventional solar panels, the new SPR-315 allows customers to generate up to 50 percent more power per square foot of roof area using half as many panels. The new design incorporates 96 of SunPower's Gen 2 solar cells, offering better panel efficiency through a combination of enhanced cell architecture and improved packing density.

"A typical 4 kilowatt (AC rating) solar system requires 30 conventional 160 watt panels and covers 410 square feet of roof space. Our new SPR 315 panels produce an equivalent amount of power using only 15 solar panels on 265 square feet," said Peter Aschenbrenner, vice president of marketing and sales at SunPower.

SunPower's solar panels have no moving parts, creating pollution-free electricity with no noise and low maintenance and, due to the all back-contact solar cell design, they perform well in cloudy or hot weather.

Additional Information

SunPower Corp.

Solar Energy

8 Reader Comments

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1 of 8

Jan_Steinman

October 20, 2006

Interesting discussion! Commidification has its place, and $/w is important, but consider another advantage of smaller panels: tracking.

In the north, there isn't a lot of sun in the winter, and it's not as easy to capture from a static mount, which loses at least half the available insolation!

I'd think higher efficiency, and thus, lower wind load and weight per watt would be a significant advantage to anyone building a tracking system.

So another way of looking at it for those needing tracking systems might be $/(p/m) -- price per power-mass density.

Comment
2 of 8

paul-mync-22676

October 20, 2006

This is great news, with more efficient modules the footprint on the roof can be much smaller. It's too bad you can't install them with the most efficient, most reliable grid tied inverters from SMA to be intalled with their modules. If you have the best modules, you want the best inverters...

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3 of 8

al-tasken-24634

October 20, 2006

If you know about Sunpower you know they sell panels at a premium compared to the industry. Some of this premium should be recovered by lower installation costs. Raising the cell efficiency up to 22% (~19.3% module efficiency) should push down installation costs further. Is it enough to counter higher $/watt? Probably not but it doesn't matter to people willing to pay the premium in the first place.

Generally solar panels can be considered a commodity so the $/watt metric is useful. Sunpower's panels fall outside the commodity group on account of their superior performance so the $/watt metric is not as useful.

I think the important thing here is that the edge has been pushed further out. I say keep pushing.

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4 of 8

kerry-beauchrt-51249

October 20, 2006

I agree with Mr Maine's comments. Without knowing the price per watt, I have no reaction whatsoever, because I'm in total ignorance as to whether this is a step forward or not. The article's author needs to be sat down and clued in as to why he missed the main fact everyone needs to know - the costs. Solar power is all about costs, costs, costs.

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5 of 8

tony-maine-12518

October 20, 2006

This is good news, but is the $/watt the same?
Very high efficiency cells tend to be much more expensive and the $/watt figure is actuall worse.

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mtaylor12345

October 24, 2006

$/watt is roughly meaningless without factoring efficiency in...

$4/watt producing 1500 kWh/kW/yr vs. $3.75 producing 1400 kWh/kW/yr are about the same in cost/kWh...

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ron-winton-59172

January 1, 2007

Efficiency could be meaningless if the panel has a poor negative tolerance rating ! Their 200 and 215 watt solar panels only had a negative 8 percent negative tolerance rating.

Many solar panels on the market have a better negative 5 percent tolerance rating (Lower is better) For example their 215 watt solar panel has a negative 8% tolerance so this manufacturer would only guaranty that you would get 197.8 watts right out of the box even though you paid for 215 watts.

It says so right on their specification sheet, see (peak power tolerance) So if this new panel only has a peak power tolerance of negative 8 percent, you would be paying for 315 watts but they will only guaranty that you'll get 289.8 watts right out of the box. So much for efficiency !

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8 of 8

anita-owen-72569

October 14, 2007

Anyone out there...have updates on this product? This is all new for me...and I am NOT a rocket scientist!

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