Earlier today, SolarCity announced that it has successfully developed the world’s “most efficient” solar panel, which it claims can produce between 30% and 40% more power than regular solar panels while also costing noticeably less than them. With the solar power industry growing at an explosive pace, this breakthrough couldn’t come at a better time for the Elon Musk-backed company. The solar panels will be commercially available very soon, and will be manufactured entirely within the United States.
SolarCity unveiled Friday a new solar panel product that the company says will be the “world’s most efficient.” The new panel, to be manufactured in the U.S., will produce 30 to 40% more power than standard panels while costing less than the average panel now when manufactured at scale, the company said. “The breakthrough here is high efficiency at a lower cost,” said SolarCity Chief Technology Officer Peter Rive in an interview. “In the past those have been opposed to one another.” The solar power industry has grown at a rapid clip in recent years as panels have become more efficient and the cost has decreased. Last year alone, nearly 200,000 homes and businesses installed solar power. SolarCity—which is backed by Elon Musk, who is also behind SpaceX and the electric car company Tesla—has become the leader within the residential solar power industry, arranging 1 in every 3 residential installations in the U.S. The new panel announced Friday us a hybrid between a traditional crystalline panel and a silicon model, has a module efficiency greater than 22%.
