(Oct. 15) – SunPower Corporation announced yesterday that the first 100 solar cells produced in its new plant in Malaysia achieved astoundingly high efficiency.

The cells that the plant produced have a minimum efficiency of 22.2 percent.

“And that’s really the news,” said Helen Kindrick, SunPower spokeswoman. “That, right out of the gate, we’re getting that kind of efficiency.”

Most photovoltaic solar cells available on the commercial market range from 18 to 20 percent efficiency. SunPower, based in San Jose, Calif., has been producing 22 percent efficiency cells for several years, and some commercial cells have reached efficiency levels greater than 24 percent. But to achieve minimum efficiency levels over 22 percent in the first production is an accomplishment, Kindrick said.

SunPower joined forces earlier this year with AU Optronics Corp. to build the Fab 3 plant in Malaysia.

They had been producing cells in Fab 1 and Fab 2 plants. Doing research in those plants allowed the companies to duplicate the efforts there and improve upon them, Kindrick said.

More efficient solar panels tend to be costlier than the more common and available panels with 18 to 19 percent efficiency.

But as manufacturers like SunPower begin producing more and more efficient solar cells, the industry may see prices fall.

“The partnership with AUO and being in Malaysia,” Kindrick said, “that marriage, has helped us to develop some cost-cutting measures.”

Parts of the Fab 3 plant are still under construction and will not be fully completed until 2013. By then, the plant should be producing 1,400 megawatts per year of these high-efficiency solar cells, according to a press release from AUO SunPower.

"This milestone positions AUO SunPower to meet the strong, global demand for our leading solar technology in 2011 and beyond,” SunPower CEO Tom Werner was quoted in the press release. “The combined AUO SunPower team has hit the ground running and is demonstrating our ability to attain our collective high standards of quality and reliability, while meeting our planned production schedules."

Pictured: SunPower's 18-Megawatt Olivenza Solar Power Plant in Badajoz, Spain.