A big firm from the Silicon Valley, SunPower, which is famous for manufacturing high-efficiency solar cells, panels, and systems, has recently announced about the launching its new SunPower E19 Series solar panels, which is an innovative product lineup that offers an efficiency of 19 percent or greater.
In case you are wondering, the efficiency figure shows the actual percentage of the sunlight that falls on the solar panel and is actually converted into usable electricity. This also means that the higher the efficiency rate is, the cheaper will be the cost of the solar energy produced.
There are certain companies that have acquired up to 42 percent efficiency while testing their products, but most commercial silicon solar cells fall in the 15 percent range.
The E19 solar panels have successfully accomplished a higher efficiency rate by using 3 percent more surface space per cell and by using such an anti reflective coating that is able to capture greater amount of off-angle light as well. With the help of this coating, greater energy per watt can be generated as compared to a conventional solar panel.
The new E19 line includes a 318-watt, 96-cell solar panel, having an efficiency of 19.5 percent and a 238-watt, 72-cell solar version with an efficiency of 19.1 percent.
It is expected that the E19 product line will be available in the third quarter of 2010, to both residential and business customers in North America and Europe.
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