Solar Cells Info

Solyndra hopes to capture the wasted sunlight falling on roofs by making solar cells into cylinders rather than panels
By David Biello, October 7, 2008
Source: Scientific American
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=cylindrical-solar-cells-give-new-meaning-to-sunroof

There are approximately 30 billion square feet (2.8 billion square meters) of expansive, flat roofs in the U.S., an area large enough to collect the sunlight needed to power 16 million American homes, or replace 38 conventional coal-fired power plants. By covering these roofs with large, flat arrays of cylindrical thin-film solar cells (think massive installations of fluorescent tubes, only absorbing light rather than emitting it), Fremont, Calif.–based Solyndra, Inc., hopes to harness that energy.

“With a cylinder, we are collecting light from all angles, even collecting diffuse light,” says CEO Chris Gronet, who founded the solar cylinder company in 2005 based on an idea he had late one night while pondering less expensive ways to install photovoltaic panels. Because the arrays do not have to be angled or anchored into the roof, he adds, “we have half the installation cost and can install in one third the time.”
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IMEC and its associated laboratory Institute for Materials Research in MicroElectronics reported they have improved the composition of organic solar cells. Researchers developed conjugated polymers to stabilize the nanomorphology of the active layer.
Source: Semiconductor International, 10/14/2008
http://www.semiconductor.net/article/CA6605199.html

IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) said its associated laboratory Institute for Materials Research in MicroElectronics (IMOMEC, Diepenbeek, Belgium) has developed a method to stabilize organic solar cells, with an order of magnitude improvement in cell lifetimes.  The center, located on the campus of the Hasselt University, said the research paves the way for commercial organic solar cells with an operational lifetime of more than five years. The researchers optimized the nanomorphology of the active layer, creating a more stable mix of organic compounds that can trap photons and transport the light energy to an electrical contact. (more…)

By Paul Sisco, Washington, 16 October 2008
Source. VOA News.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-10-16-voa23.cfm

In a state that already leads the U.S. in solar electricity, a company has developed a unique solar system it touts for large commercial rooftops. The northern California is already marketing the system, which it unveiled 7 October, to companies around the world. VOA’s Paul Sisco has this Searching for Solutions report.  In California, the governor has set an ambitious goal for renewable energy, and an industry organization says the state is the top producer of solar electricity in the country.  Now a northern California company, Solyndra, is introducing a new solar panel designed for vast commercial rooftops. The collectors are quite different than tradition flat panels.  (more…)

Source: Nanotechwire.com / 19 Oct 2008
http://nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=6773

Researchers have created a new material that overcomes two of the major obstacles to solar power: it absorbs all the energy contained in sunlight, and generates electrons in a way that makes them easier to capture.  Ohio State University chemists and their colleagues combined electrically conductive plastic with metals including molybdenum and titanium to create the hybrid material. (more…)

Source: SemiconductorToday.com,  23 September 2008
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2008/SEPT/FRAUNHOFER_230908.htm

After in mid-July announcing a European record of 37.6% for solar cell efficiency, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) of Freiburg, Germany has achieved a new record of 39.7% (closer to the world record of 40.8% set in August by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory).  The new cell uses the same metamorphic (lattice mismatched) triple-junction structures consisting of more than 30 layers (including Ga0.35In0.65P, Ga0.83In0.17As and Ge) grown on a germanium substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using a reactor from Aixtron of Aachen, Germany. However, the higher efficiency has been achieved by improving the contact structures of the solar cells through using a front-side network of thin metal wires that transport large currents but with low resistance, according to Frank Dimroth, head of the III-V – Epitaxy and Solar Cells Group. (more…)

To avoid repeating the wafer fab fiasco for solar PV too, government policies to promote it must be realistic
by Dev Gupta, CTO, APSTL
Scottsdale, USA & Bangalore, India, September 23, 2008
Source: CIOL.com
http://www.ciol.com/Semicon/Solar/PV/News-Reports/
Solar-PV-industry-in-India-Strategy-for-success/23908110718/0/

Nearly four years since promoters first descended on India to hawk multi-billion dollar wafer fabs for semiconductor chips and for nearly as long since local booster associations (composed mostly of software/design types with rather thin credentials in expertise e,g. physics or materials science, critical to semiconductors) jumped on the bandwagon to advocate wafer fabs, not a single new fab has come up anywhere in India! (more…)

Nuying Huang, Taipei; Esther Lam
Source: DIGITIMES, 11 September 2008
http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080910PD216.html

While more new thin-film solar cell players from Asia are entering into polysilicon volume production in 2009, many of them have noted that their capacity has already been fully booked. However, their claimed success does hide potential risks as compared to the achievements made by leading players. Given that leading player First Solar has already introduced its cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin-film solar modules into volume production, smaller-scale players have looked into the segment more closely. (more…)

Press release, September 17; Michael McManus
Source: DIGITIMES, 17 September 2008
http://www.digitimes.com/bits_chips/a20080917PR203.html

Manufacturing capacity for thin-film and organic photovoltaics is expected to grow from approximately 2 GWp (Gigawatts at peak sunlight) this year to 29 GWp by 2015 according to a new report from NanoMarkets, an industry analyst firm. While First Solar will be hard to pass in the cadmium telluride (CdTe) sector, the race for dominance in the CIGS and OPV sectors has just begun. By 2015 these two sectors combined will account for 19% and 10% of aggregate capacity. At the same time, the value of manufacturing equipment purchased by thin-film PV (TFPV) and organic PV (OPV) firms will grow from US$450 million in 2008 to US$4.8 billion in 2015. (more…)

New materials for high-performance cells could make solar power affordable.
By Kevin Bullis, September 23, 2008
Source: MIT TechnologyReview.com
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biztech/21405/

A cheap new way to attach mirrors to silicon yields very efficient solar cells that don’t cost much to manufacture. The technique could lead to solar panels that produce electricity for the average price of electricity in the United States. Suniva, a startup based in Atlanta, has made solar cells that convert about 20 percent of the energy in the sunlight that falls on them into electricity. That’s up from 17 percent for its previous solar cells and close to the efficiency of the best solar cells on the market. But unlike other high-efficiency silicon solar cells, says Ajeet Rohatgi, the company’s founder and chief technology officer, Suniva’s are made using low-cost methods. One such method is screen printing, a relatively cheap process much like the silk-screen process used to print T-shirts. (more…)

Success in Trial Manufacture of BN/Si Heterodiode Solar Cell
September 04, 2008
Source: National Institute for Materials Science NIMS, Japan press release
http://www.nims.go.jp/eng/news/press/press080904-1.html
Abstract
1. A team led by Dr. Shojiro Komatsu, Group Leader of the Wide Band Gap Semiconductor Group, Advanced Electronic Materials Center of the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS; President: Teruo Kishi) succeeded for the first time in the world in trial manufacturing a solar cell using high density boron nidtride (sp3-bonding BN), which is transparent to visible light and is one of the strongest of materials (high temperature refractory). (more…)