SolarCity has unveiled rooftop solar panels with the world’s highest conversion efficiency and will manufacture them in America. The solar panels with efficiency over 22% generate more power per foot and harvests more energy over a year than any other rooftop panel in production.
SolarCity will produce a small quantity of the new solar panels at its 100MW pilot facility while the majority of them will be manufactured at SolarCity’s 1GW facility in Buffalo, New York. The Buffalo facility is expected to produce 9,000 to 10,000 panels per day as it reaches full capacity.
Renewable Energy Test Center, a third-party certification testing provider for photovoltaic and renewable energy products, measured 22.04% module-level efficiency for SolarCity’s new product. The new panel was created via a proprietary process that significantly reduces the manufacturing cost relative to other high-efficiency technologies—is the same size as standard efficiency solar panels, but produces 30-40% more power. SolarCity's panel also performs better than other modules in high temperatures, which allows it to produce even more energy on an annual basis than other solar panels of comparable size.
SolarCity initially expects to install the new, record-setting solar panel on rooftops and carports for homes, businesses, schools and other organizations, but it will also be excellent for utility-scale solar fields and other large-scale, ground level installations.