Solar Cells Info

Source: Small Times, NC
http://www.smalltimes.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?ARTICLE_ID=273331&p=109

By M. Paul Jackson, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C.

Sept. 29, 2006 — In a nondescript laboratory on Deacon Boulevard, scientists work to build machines that are smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

The laboratory is part of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials at Wake Forest University, a program that is developing products such as flexible solar-energy panels, microscopic devices that can identify and attack diseases, and therapies for drug-resistant illnesses.

The products are created using nanotechnology, the science of developing materials on a molecular level. Through nanotechnology, scientists nationwide hope to create silicon chips, larger computer disk drives, medical devices and fabrics.

The Wake Forest center is leading the charge in the region’s bid to become a nanotechnology hub. Wake Forest’s nanotechnology center, created about three years ago, was awarded a multimillion-dollar grant from the U.S. Department of Defense in March to create “negative index” materials, or materials that can bend light, for example.

The center is also developing medical technologies that could help combat cancer, said David Carroll, the center’s director. The center is made up of about 15 research teams and 45 people, he said.

Last year, Wake Forest announced that it had developed flexible solar-energy cells that could convert about 6 percent of the light that hits them into electrical power. The center is also developing cells that will be able to convert even more amounts of sunlight into energy, allowing the center to compete with most manufacturers of solar-energy cells, Carroll said.

“I hope it means that Winston-Salem will be the center of the universe for solar power,” he said.

Developing more efficient, flexible-energy cells is “a major, major step for us,” he added. “It’s hard to overestimate this. The biggest industry in the world is energy.”

But developing a nanotech industry is easier said than done. Carroll said that one of the center’s major challenges is increasing the public awareness of the center.
“The community itself needs to pull together a little bit better to make ourselves known in a more cohesive way,” he said. The center is also attempting to create a nanotech business alliance that will help provide resources for local companies and help them expand.

Meanwhile, state officials said that they were confident that they could nurture the growing industry.