Top Q:What does energy conversion efficiency mean?
Energy conversion efficiency is an expression of the amount of energy produced in proportion to the amount of energy consumed, or available to a device. The Sun produces a lot of energy in a wide light spectrum, but we have so far learned to capture only small portions of that spectrum for conversion to electricity using photovoltaics. Today’s commercial PV systems are about 7% to 17% efficient. By comparison, a typical fossil fuel generator has an efficiency of about 28%. However, some experimental PV cells now convert nearly 40% of the energy in sunlight to electricity.
