SunPower Corporation has been awarded the Guinness World Record for the most efficient solar panel on the commercial market - its new E20 series of rooftop modules.
The E20 delivers a record cell efficiency rating of 22.4 percent and a module peak efficiency of 20.07% - the industry’s first commercially-available solar panels to achieve total area efficiencies of 20 percent or higher.
The E20 features SunPower’s patented Maxeon cell technology that allows the E20 to capture more sunlight and conduct more electricity than conventional commercially available solar panels.
The E20 has no metal gridlines on the surface to block the light and wider metal contacts conduct more electrical current. A backside mirror also reflects more light back into the cell.
Each E20 solar panel consists of 96 photovoltaic (PV) cells and the company is releasing 333-watt and 327-watt models for rooftop solar installations.
SunPower’s E20 boasts a positive power tolerance rating, ensuring that the power generated by each panel meets or exceed that panel’s rating by up to five percent more; instead of less as is common in solar panels.
SunPower developed the E20 prototype in 2009 with funding from the US Department of Energy under the Solar America Initiative. The efficiency rating has been endorsed by the DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
SunPower’s E20 series solar panels will be offered in Europe and Australia later this year.
In other recent SunPower news, the company has announced it will design and build a 2.5-megawatt solar power system at Munich Re’s Plainsboro, N.J. facility and its recent completion of 6-megawatt solar photovoltaic power system at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs that will avoid more than 9,400 tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
