A year after Solar Inventions took first place in the U.S. Department of Energy’s American-Made Solar Prize competition, the company announced that Georgia-based commercial solar developer Cherry Street Energy has placed a 20-MW order for solar panels using Solar Inventions’ C3 technology.
Photo courtesy of Solar Inventions
The first batches of C3 cells and panels with Solar Inventions’ improved photovoltaic cell architecture were manufactured by an undisclosed solar panel manufacturer.
Solar Inventions, headquartered in Atlanta, calls its product C3, for “Configurable Current Cells.” CFV Solar Test Laboratory, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, has completed IEC61853-1 testing for the C3 technology.
“Any manufacturer can license the technology, with an excellent cost-benefit ratio,” said Ben Damiani, Solar Inventions’ co-founder and Chief Scientist. “The benefits are similar to half-cells, but without requiring cells to be physically broken and rewired.”
Solar Inventions’ patent-pending discovery puts solar cells into “lanes” by electrically dividing each cell into subcells, allowing current to flow more directly. The new PV cell architecture increases the electricity produced by slightly increasing voltage and fill factor, and saves enough silver in manufacturing to cover licensing fees.
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