Startup developing high-volume concentrator photovoltaic modules

Semprius, Durham, N.C., a startup formed by a range of experts in the semiconductor, optoelectronics and advanced materials markets, recently made news for its development of low-cost, high performance concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) modules to make solar power generation economically viable.

NREL scientist Keith Emery examines a Semprius solar module at the laboratory's Outdoor Test Facility. Image courtesy Dennis Schroeder, NREL.

Specifically, the company's micro-transfer printing technology is said to enable CPV modules with high performance, high reliability and low cost with scalability to high-volume production.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, which wrote about the company's innovation in a Dec. 14 news feature, tiny CPVs were tested and exhibited greater than 41 percent efficiency at a concentration of 1,000 suns. The cells are just 600µm wide.

"Seed money from the Department of Energy, together with the experts at the NREL-based SunShot Incubator Program, lifted Semprius from a small electronics startup with a novel idea to a real difference-maker in the solar cell world," reported NREL.

Semprius, according to its Web site, is licensing its micro-transfer printing technology for non-solar applications to enable a wide variety of new products requiring large-area, thin, lightweight form factors, unprecedented performance, high reliability and low cost.