RoseStreet Labs and Sumitomo Chemical Announce JV for Full-Spectrum Solar Cells

Sumitomo Chemical of Japan and RoseStreet labs are establishing a joint venture to develop and manufacture full spectrum photovoltaic solar cells. The intent is create cells that convert more of the available energy in sunlight into electricity.

The joint-venture company, RSL Energy, Inc., will be based in Phoenix, Arizona. RSL has exclusive license rights to several patents from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Cornell University. They are focusing on commercializing technology to produce multi-band solar cells. Current single band solar cells have a theoretical maximum efficiency of 31percent. By using multiple semi-conductors to capture energy from different wave-lengths, they believe that they can achieve 56 percent and eventually push that to as high as 73 percent efficiency. Anything that can be done to improve the energy conversion efficiency of solar systems will help reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

[Source: RoseStreet Labs]