Cheap and enviromentally friendly: Tofu ingredient could revolutionize solar panel manufacture

ScienceDaily
The chemical used to make tofu and bath salts could also replace a highly toxic and expensive substance used to make solar cells, a new study has revealed. Cadmium chloride is currently a key ingredient in solar cell technology used in millions of solar panels around the world. This soluble compound is highly toxic and expensive to produce, requiring elaborate safety measures to protect workers during manufacture and then specialist disposal when panels are no longer needed. (Original paper)

Panasonic's HIT solar cell hits record 25.6 percent conversion efficiency

Gizmag
Panasonic is reporting a 25.6 percent conversion efficiency for its HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar cells. This is an improvement of 0.9 percentage points over the 24.7 percent conversion efficiency Panasonic achieved in February 2013, with the company claiming it as a world record for crystalline silicon-based solar cells of a "practical size."(100 cm2) (...) The company says the new record was made possible through further development of its proprietary heterojunction technology, which involves laminating layers of high-quality amorphous silicon onto a monocrystalline silicon substrate. (...) Additionally, unlike the 24.7 percent efficiency solar cells, the new record holders have the electrodes placed on the reverse of the panel as back contacts, allowing the light hitting the cell's surface to be more efficiently directed to the monocrystalline silicon substrate where power is generated. Placing the electrodes on the reverse side has also allowed the resistive loss when the current is fed to the grid electrodes to be reduced.

Two Thin-Film Solar Efficiency Records Broken Last Week

Renewable Energy World
First Solar, one of the world’s largest thin-film PV companies, announced that it set a world record for cadmium-telluride (CdTe) PV cells, converting 20.4 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity. The cell was built at the company's Perrysburg, Ohio, factory. (...)
Stion announced that it produced a 23.2 efficient copper indium gallium (di)selenide (CIGS)-based thin-film cell. This technology puts it within striking range of the most-efficient silicon-based PV cells. The company said it’s already scaled this technology at or above 20.0 percent efficiency on a prototype module (20 cm x 20 cm) and anticipates that it will soon be able to scale it to a larger module. (...)
[T]hin-film embraces a variety of technologies, they’re at different levels of efficiency but all are competing to catch up with silicon PV, which is led as of February 2014 by Panasonic, which has produced silicon cells that convert 24.7 percent of the sun’s energy into electricity.

24 Percent Efficient n-Type Silicon Solar Cell

Fraunhofer ISE
Fraunhofer ISE [reached a] new record: 24 percent efficiency for a silicon solar cell which uses an n-type base material and a novel concept for the rear contact. The special feature of this cell is a so-called passivated contact covering the entire rear surface.

Spectrolab sets new solar PV cell efficiency world record of 38.8% without concentration

SolarServer
Spectrolab has produced a solar photovoltaic (PV) cell with a conversion efficiency of 38.8% without concentration of light. (...) This is a new world record, and beats Spectrolab's previous record by 1%. The multijunction PV cell was developed using new bonding technology from Spectrolab's parent company Boeing (Chicago). (...) Boeing notes that the technology can be used to power high-powered spacecraft and unmanned aerial

Nanosolar Reborn as German Silicon Module and BIPV Manufacturer

Greentech Media
Nanosolar was acquired by Smartenergy Renewable and has been rechristened "Smartenergy Renewables Deutschland GmbH." But no CIGS thin-film solar remains in the equation. The new company will now be a crystalline silicon module assembly, a building-integrated PV manufacturer, and an O&M firm, claiming advantage in vertical integration. And manufacturing in Germany. The company will continue to support existing CIGS customers.

For the full story, as seen from the sit of the former Nanosolar CEO can be read here.

World record solar cell with 44.7% efficiency

ScienceDaily
The Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center Berlin jointly announced today having achieved a new world record for the conversion of sunlight into electricity using a new solar cell structure with four solar subcells. Surpassing competition after only over three years of research, and entering the roadmap at world class level, a new record efficiency of 44.7% was measured at a concentration of 297 suns.

CPV: Amonix Founder Speaks, Blames VCs, Laments Lack of Supply Chain

Greentech Media
It's tough times for concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar firms. GreenVolts went under and Amonix went quiet after shuttering its Nevada factory and laying off much of its staff last year. SolFocus is trying to sell itself and finding no buyers. Only Soitec seems to be developing new CPV systems, helped presumably, by a healthier balance sheet. (...) [Amonix's founder] Garboushian described CPV as an impoverished market with 100 megawatts deployed and $500 million invested over the last ten years, compared to the $50 billion received by the silicon industry. Garboushian said that what CPV needs is a supply chain, large-scale manufacturing, consolidation of the technology, and a big corporate backer instead of VCs looking to flip companies in a few years' time. (...) He called CPV bankable technology -- but it's hard to be considered bankable if the vendor is not going to be around in one year, let alone twenty.
A colleague and early employee at a rival CPV firm notes, "The CPV industry remains locked in a battle against declining costs with silicon technologies. The 2012 surge in cost reduction achieved by silicon may ultimately prove to be the death blow to today's commercial CPV providers, though there continue to be innovations in CPV cell efficiency and module design that could keep the technology alive in the highest-DNI environments. The big question is whether silicon will allow some breathing room in 2013 with the price increases that some predict, or whether further cost and price reductions in 2013 make the gap wholly uncrossable."

New solar cell records

The Energy Department's National Renewable Energy Lab [Myles Steiner] has announced a world record of 31.1% conversion efficiency for a two-junction solar cell under one sun of illumination. (...) The previous record of 30.8% efficiency was held by Alta Devices. The tandem cell was made of a gallium indium phosphide cell atop a gallium arsenide cell, has an area of about 0.25 square centimeters and was measured under the AM1.5 global spectrum at 1,000 W/m2. It was grown inverted, similar to the NREL-developed inverted metamorphic multi-junction (IMM) solar cell -- and flipped during processing. The cell was covered on the front with a bilayer anti-reflection coating, and on the back with a highly reflective gold contact layer.

More info: Conversion-efficiency record for a two-junction solar cell measured under one-sun illumination

Sharp Corporation has achieved the world's highest solar cell conversion efficiency of 44.4%, using a concentrator triple-junction compound solar cell. These solar cells are used in a lens-based concentrator system that focuses sunlight on the cells to generate electricity. (...) Sharp's concentrator triple-junction compound solar cells use a proprietary technology that enables the efficient conversion of sunlight into electricity by means of a stack of three photo-absorption layers, the bottommost of which is made from InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide).To achieve a concentrating conversion efficiency of 44.4%, Sharp worked to widen the effective concentrator cell surface and ensure uniformity of width at the interface of the connecting concentrator cell and electrodes.

More info: Sharp Develops Concentrator Solar Cell with World's Highest Conversion Efficiency of 44.4%

Equipa de estudantes portugueses triunfa nos Ericsson Application Awards

www.computerworld.com.pt
A equipa portuguesa GreenSpark [da Universidade a Madeira] triunfou na categoria de estudantes nos Ericsson Application Awards 2013, com a aplicação Sun Monitor para monitorização de sistemas de energia solar residenciais. (...) Segundo a organização, o Sun Monitor “reduz a complexidade de manter e monitorizar um sistema de energia solar residencial, através de um dispositivo plug-and-play, com recurso a tecnologia de cloud computing”. O júri seleccionou a GreenSpark por “a equipa se ter focado no desempenho das células solares numa altura em que o consumo de energia e a eficiência energética ganham cada vez mais destaque, e de ter desenvolvido uma aplicação com benefícios óbvios para os utilizadores e para todos os stakeholders no ramo da energia”.

Mais informações sobre o projecto aqui.

Será que o telhado da minha casa tem potencial energético?

in Cidades do Futuro | Expresso - Expresso.pt
Será que o telhado da minha casa tem potencial energético? 
Um trabalho de um grupo de investigadores do e-GEO, unidade de investigação da Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCSH-UNL) e do DEGEE da Faculdade de Ciência da Universidade de Lisboa, tem uma solução que permite estimar a rentabilidade da instalação de sistemas fotovoltaicos dos telhados das habitações, Para já, este sistema de informação geográfica tem como área de demonstração a freguesia de Alvalade, em Lisboa [aqui]. Mas, segundo Teresa Santos, investigadora da FCSH-UNL, o e-GEO é uma plataforma que foi concebida para ser replicada noutras zonas de Lisboa e cidades portuguesas.

3D PV

R&D Mag
Building cubes or towers that extend the solar cells upward in 3D configurations. Amazingly, the results from the structures they've tested show power output ranging from double to more than 20 times that of fixed flat panels with the same base area. The biggest boosts in power were seen in the situations where improvements are most needed: in locations far from the equator, in winter months and on cloudier days. The new findings, based on both computer modeling and outdoor testing of real modules, have been published in Energy and Environmental Science. (...) "Even 10 years ago, this idea wouldn't have been economically justified because the modules cost so much," Grossman says. But now, he adds, "the cost for silicon cells is a fraction of the total cost, a trend that will continue downward in the near future." Currently, up to 65% of the cost of photovoltaic (PV) energy is associated with installation, permission for use of land, and other components besides the cells themselves.
Check the original paper for details.

Hybrid PV cell with up to 44% efficiency

SolarServer
Researchers at Cavendish Laboratory have developed a "hybrid" solar photovoltaic (PV) cell which can reach up to 44% efficiency by utilizing a greater portion of the spectrum of sunlight.
The new cells not only absorb both red and blue light, but by adding the organic semiconductor pentacene the cells are able to generate two electrons for every photon from the blue light spectrum. Cambridge University Professors Neil Greenham and Sir Richard Friend led the team, which published its research in the journal NanoLetters concurrent with the announcement.
Paper at NanoLetters

Paint-on solar cells developed

Science daily
A team of researchers at the University of Notre Dame has made a major advance toward this vision by creating an inexpensive "solar paint" that uses semiconducting nanoparticles to produce energy.(...) [D]escribed in the journal ACS Nano, centered on nano-sized particles of titanium dioxide, which were coated with either cadmium sulfide or cadmium selenide. The particles were then suspended in a water-alcohol mixture to create a paste. When the paste was brushed onto a transparent conducting material and exposed to light, it created electricity. "The best light-to-energy conversion efficiency we've reached so far is 1 percent, which is well behind the usual 10 to 15 percent efficiency of commercial silicon solar cells,".

Full paper here.

Winners of the IDTechEx Energy Harvesting and WSN Awards

Energy Harvesting Journal
Nothing to do with PV but a home celebration anyway: David Pera and Pedro Gomes have been awarded the best academic poster award at the IDTechEx in Boston this November.
"Of the academic posters on show at the event, the winning poster was awarded to David Pera and Pedro Gomes of the University of Lisboa, for E-Turbine - Eolic Concentrator for Energy Harvesting in Highways and Urban Environments. One judge commented, Very new and innovative. Lots of applications.

For more information about the next IDTechEx awards on this topic, see www.IDTechEx.com/Boston

Silver-free heterojunction silicon solar cells

Imec news
At the 21st International Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Conference in Fukuoka, Japan, Kaneka and imec present silver-free heterojunction silicon solar cells. The results were obtained by applying copper electroplating technology, which was developed by Kaneka based on imec’s existing copper electroplating technology, A conversion efficiency of more than 21% was achieved in 6-inch silicon substrates with an electroplated copper contact grid on top of the transparent conductive oxide layer.

SCHOTT announces improved efficiencies with Quasimono wafers, PV cells using low-cost metal contacts

SolarServer
SCHOTT Solar AG (Mainz, Germany) has reached 19.9% efficiency with wafers made using its Quasimono wafers.
"With Quasimono, SCHOTT Solar has now developed a new technique for manufacturing full-square high-performance wafers that contain a high monocrystalline share that is significantly more cost-effective than the standard processes used in the past," declared SCHOTT in a press statement. (...) SCHOTT notes that the efficiencies that it has reached with PV cells made from Quasimono wafers come close to the record efficiencies that it achieved with monocrystalline PV cells. SCHOTT's development team is currently further refining the process, which is supported by the German government as part of the Quasimono research project.

Las VeGaS project to replace silver contacts with nickel-copper plating
The 18% efficiency that SCHOTT has reached using multicrystalline PV cells with copper contacts is part of its Las VeGaS project, which seeks to largely replace the silver contacts in PV cells with less expensive nickel-copper plating. If successful, this would reduce the manufacturing costs of metallization by more than half.

>20% efficiency modules

SunPower press release
Sunpower launched the SunPower™ E20 series of solar panels, the industry's first commercially-available solar panels to achieve total area efficiencies of 20 percent or more. The new 96-cell E20 solar panels are available in 333-watt and 327-watt models for rooftop installations and featureSunPower's 22.4 percent efficient patented Maxeon™ cell technology. The all-back contact Maxeon solar cell captures significantly more sunlight and conducts more electrical current than conventional solar cells, and holds the world record for efficiency among commercially available, mass-produced solar cells.

Record Efficiency of 18.7% for Flexible CIGS Solar Cells

Renewable Energy News
Scientists at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, have further boosted the energy conversion efficiency of flexible solar cells made of copper indium gallium (di)selenide (also known as CIGS) to a new world record of 18.7% – a significant improvement over the previous record of 17.6% achieved by the same team in June 2010.

Artificial Leaf Turns Sunlight Into a Cheap Energy Source

Science magazine

[MIT team led by chemist Daniel Nocera made a presentation a new device] last weekend at the biannual meeting of the American Chemical Society. (...) The new device is a silicon wafer about the shape and size of a playing card. Different catalysts coat each side of the wafer. The silicon absorbs sunlight and passes that energy to the catalysts to split water into molecules of hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). Hydrogen is a fuel that can be either burned or used in a fuel cell to create electricity, reforming water in either case. This means that, in theory, anyone with access to water can use it to create a cheap, clean, and available source of fuel. (...) The silicon absorbs sunlight and passes energetic, negatively charged electrons and positively charged electron vacancies to the catalysts on opposite sides that use them to make H2 and O2. When the device is placed in a clear jar and exposed to sunlight, the setup converts 5.5% of the energy in sunlight into hydrogen fuel. “You literally walk outside, hold it up, and it works,” Nocera says.(...) Nocera didn't reveal the makeup of the new catalyst, as the work is not yet published, and he is in the process of patenting it.