Is Germanium Used In Solar Panels

In a recent article in the magazine electronic news gallium arsenide was tested on a germanium substrate.

Is germanium used in solar panels.

Companies involved in germanium production a key sourcing item for solar thin film panel manufacturers. Diode and unidirectional flow of current in simplest terms a diode can be understood as a two terminal electronic device which allows electrical current to pass in one direction. The plot below shows the theoretical efficiency as a function of band gap in the shockley quessier limit. You do see germanium used in some cells where that higher efficiency is a requirement for the specific application and where in money isn t really an object think nasa the mars rovers and high end research.

41 germanium manufacturers are listed below. Learn how and why blocking diodes and bypass diodes are used. This makes them a good candidate for a stacked type of solar panels used for collecting light from all across the spectrum. Solar panels are a major use of germanium.

I don t get too much into that end of the solar world but i don t know where else germanium cells are used. On average solar panels made from silicon based solar cells convert between 15 and 20 percent of the sun s energy into usable electricity. The germanium on nothing approach taken by the team described in the paper germanium on nothing for epitaxial liftoff of gaas solar cells published in the journal joule involves the. Germanium is never used by itself as a solar cell because the efficiency is much lower than silicon a cheaper alternative.

A silicon solar cell with silicon germanium filter using a step cell design large and a gallium arsenide phosphide layer on silicon step cell proof of concept solar cell small. Fiber optics are thin strands of glass that are bundled together and used to send signals. High brightness leds used for automobile headlights and to backlight lcd screens are an important application. Germanium solar cells are expensive and so are only now used mainly on spacecraft but with the improved wafer slicing method the idea is to make germanium based high efficiency solar cells for uses where cost now is a factor particularly for solar power on earth says eberhard ebbe bamberg an assistant professor of mechanical engineering.

Most of those links are. Germanium is also used to make solar panels that help convert sunlight into energy and for fiber optics. Germanium is the substrate of the wafers for high efficiency multijunction photovoltaic cells for space applications.