Developed in just two years, QuantaSol's single-junction device has been independently tested by Fraunhofer ISE as achieving 28.3 percent efficiency at greater than 500 suns.

"Our technology is the industry's best kept secret. This is the first time that anyone has successfully combined high efficiency with ease of manufacture, historically a bug-bear of the solar cell industry," said Kevin Arthur, QuantaSol's CEO. "We are now gearing up to provide multi-junction cells of even higher efficiencies as early as Q1 2010."

QuantaSol's approach combines several nanostructures, of two or more different alloys, in order to obtain synthetic crystals that overcome the problems associated with current solar cell designs. It also greatly enhances the photovoltaic conversion efficiency.

Last week, the company completed a £2 million second funding round and said it will now concentrate on cutting the cost of ownership of solar energy by moving to multi-junction devices.

Based in Kingston-upon-Thames, England and established in 2007, QuantaSol closed a £1.35 million (about $2.7 million) first round investment in 2007 from Imperial Innovations Group plc, the technology commercialization arm of Imperial College.

Imperial is featuring a QuantaSol device as part of its presence at the Royal Society Summer Exhibition in London this week.