Australian start-up Sundrive has once again amazed the world, as they recently announce another solar efficiency record. A newly developed style of a silicon hetero junction solar cell (full size), which consists of a copper base, has achieved 26.41% efficiency, compared to the standard silver-based cell which sits around the 15-22% range, and the Chinese company ‘Longi’ record of their silver based cells at 26.30%.

“Copper is around 100 times cheaper per kilogram and around 1,000 times more abundant than silver. And aside from the abundancy and cost benefits of copper, we have found we can improve the efficiency above and beyond what is attainable with silver.”

Not only are they using an alternative material to cut costs, but this means that they can use less silicon as it allows for a more concentrated smaller surface area, whilst still being able to achieve the increased efficiency. This is great news for scalability as panels will be more and more common, matching the worlds energy needs.