Solar Cell Energy Efficiency Guide: Definition, Calculation & Test Conditions
2025-05-08
Efficiency is the most commonly used metric to compare the output of one solar cell to another. Efficiency is defined as the ratio of energy produced by the solar cell to the energy from the sun. Efficiency reflects solar cell performance but also depends on the intensity and spectrum of the incident sunlight, and the temperature of the solar cell. For this reason, the conditions under which efficiency is quantified need to be controlled in order to compare performance of one device to another. Terrestrial solar cells are evaluated under AM1.5 conditions and 25 °C. Solar cells developed to be used in space are evaluated under AM0 conditions.
The efficiency of a solar cell is quantified as the fraction of incident power converted to electrical energy and is written as:
Where:
Voc is the open circuit voltage,
Isc is the short circuit current,
FF is the fill factor,
η is the efficiency.
The input power value used in efficiency calculations is 1 kW/m2 or 100 mW/cm2. Therefore the input power for a 100×100 mm2 cell is 10 W and for a 156×156 mm2 cell is 24.3 W.
How do solar cells work diagram
Solar cell cost price per watt
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