Solar Cells

December 24, 2009 By: Admin Category: General

Flexible Solar Cell by Spheral Solar Power

Car bonnets, roof tiles and building facades can quickly enter the colorful and flexible solar panels to complement their conventional resources. Spheral Solar Power has produced efficient and flexible solar cells, which produces electricity at a lower cost and open an array of new applications for renewable energy.

Like denim material consists of thousands of tiny silicon beads attached to aluminum foil – each bead acting as an individual solar cells and uneven surfaces offer a larger area for light collection. Production costs can be reduced through the use of recycled silicon and this, combined with the efficiency comparable to standards photovoltaic cells and the versatility of a flexible material make Spheral solar cells potential to dramatically expand the use of renewable energy.

Building design can take advantage of hundreds of colors, styles and shapes to smoothly integrate solar cells. Spheral cells can be used to reflect light from or transmit light into the building and expand their flexibility for use in the company logo.

In tile the cells can be incorporated into the curved substrate opening various markets applications and automobile manufacturer may have found an alternative aerodynamic to rigid photovoltaic cells that are not practical in terms of vehicle design.

Commercial production of flexible cells are expected to begin in late 2003.

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Photovoltaic Cells

December 21, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Cells

Glitter-sized Solar Photovoltaics Produce Competitive Results

Adventures in microsolar supported by microelectronics and MEMS techniques

Sandia National Laboratories scientists have developed tiny glitter-sized photovoltaic cells that could revolutionize the way solar energy is collected and used.

The tiny cells could turn a person into a walking solar battery charger if they were fastened to flexible substrates molded around unusual shapes, such as clothing.

The solar particles, fabricated of crystalline silicon, hold the potential for a variety of new applications. They are expected eventually to be less expensive and have greater efficiencies than current photovoltaic collectors that are pieced together with 6-inch- square solar wafers.

The cells are fabricated using microelectronic and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) techniques common to today’s electronic foundries.

Sandia lead investigator Greg Nielson said the research team has identified more than 20 benefits of scale for its microphotovoltaic cells. These include new applications, improved performance, potential for reduced costs and higher efficiencies.

“Eventually units could be mass-produced and wrapped around unusual shapes for building-integrated solar, tents and maybe even clothing,” he said. This would make it possible for hunters, hikers or military personnel in the field to recharge batteries for phones, cameras and other electronic devices as they walk or rest.

Even better, such microengineered panels could have circuits imprinted that would help perform other functions customarily left to large-scale construction with its attendant need for field construction design and permits.

Said Sandia field engineer Vipin Gupta, “Photovoltaic modules made from these microsized cells for the rooftops of homes and warehouses could have intelligent controls, inverters and even storage built in at the chip level. Such an integrated module could greatly simplify the cumbersome design, bid, permit and grid integration process that our solar technical assistance teams see in the field all the time.”

For large-scale power generation, said Sandia researcher Murat Okandan, “One of the biggest scale benefits is a significant reduction in manufacturing and installation costs compared with current PV techniques.”

Part of the potential cost reduction comes about because microcells require relatively little material to form well-controlled and highly efficient devices.

From 14 to 20 micrometers thick (a human hair is approximately 70 micrometers thick), they are 10 times thinner than conventional 6-inch-by-6-inch brick-sized cells, yet perform at about the same efficiency.

100 times less silicon generates same amount of electricity

“So they use 100 times less silicon to generate the same amount of electricity,” said Okandan. “Since they are much smaller and have fewer mechanical deformations for a given environment than the conventional cells, they may also be more reliable over the long term.”

Another manufacturing convenience is that the cells, because they are only hundreds of micrometers in diameter, can be fabricated from commercial wafers of any size, including today’s 300-millimeter (12-inch) diameter wafers and future 450-millimeter (18-inch) wafers. Further, if one cell proves defective in manufacture, the rest still can be harvested, while if a brick-sized unit goes bad, the entire wafer may be unusable. Also, brick-sized units fabricated larger than the conventional 6-inch-by-6-inch cross section to take advantage of larger wafer size would require thicker power lines to harvest the increased power, creating more cost and possibly shading the wafer. That problem does not exist with the small-cell approach and its individualized wiring.

Other unique features are available because the cells are so small. “The shade tolerance of our units to overhead obstructions is better than conventional PV panels,” said Nielson, “because portions of our units not in shade will keep sending out electricity where a partially shaded conventional panel may turn off entirely.”

Because flexible substrates can be easily fabricated, high-efficiency PV for ubiquitous solar power becomes more feasible, said Okandan.

A commercial move to microscale PV cells would be a dramatic change from conventional silicon PV modules composed of arrays of 6-inch-by-6-inch wafers. However, by bringing in techniques normally used in MEMS, electronics and the light-emitting diode (LED) industries (for additional work involving gallium arsenide instead of silicon), the change to small cells should be relatively straightforward, Gupta said.

Each cell is formed on silicon wafers, etched and then released inexpensively in hexagonal shapes, with electrical contacts prefabricated on each piece, by borrowing techniques from integrated circuits and MEMS.

Offering a run for their money to conventional large wafers of crystalline silicon, electricity presently can be harvested from the Sandia-created cells with 14.9 percent efficiency. Off-the-shelf commercial modules range from 13 to 20 percent efficient.

A widely used commercial tool called a pick-and-place machine — the current standard for the mass assembly of electronics — can place up to 130,000 pieces of glitter per hour at electrical contact points preestablished on the substrate; the placement takes place at cooler temperatures. The cost is approximately one-tenth of a cent per piece with the number of cells per module determined by the level of optical concentration and the size of the die, likely to be in the 10,000 to 50,000 cell per square meter range. An alternate technology, still at the lab-bench stage, involves self-assembly of the parts at even lower costs.

Solar concentrators — low-cost, prefabricated, optically efficient microlens arrays — can be placed directly over each glitter-sized cell to increase the number of photons arriving to be converted via the photovoltaic effect into electrons. The small cell size means that cheaper and more efficient short focal length microlens arrays can be fabricated for this purpose.

High-voltage output is possible directly from the modules because of the large number of cells in the array. This should reduce costs associated with wiring, due to reduced resistive losses at higher voltages.

Other possible applications for the technology include satellites and remote sensing.

The project combines expertise from Sandia’s Microsystems Center; Photovoltaics and Grid Integration Group; the Materials, Devices, and Energy Technologies Group; and the National Renewable Energy Lab’s Concentrating Photovoltaics Group.

Involved in the process, in addition to Nielson, Okandan and Gupta, are Jose Luis Cruz-Campa, Paul Resnick, Tammy Pluym, Peggy Clews, Carlos Sanchez, Bill Sweatt, Tony Lentine, Anton Filatov, Mike Sinclair, Mark Overberg, Jeff Nelson, Jennifer Granata, Craig Carmignani, Rick Kemp, Connie Stewart, Jonathan Wierer,

George Wang, Jerry Simmons, Jason Strauch, Judith Lavin and Mark Wanlass (NREL).

The work is supported by DOE’s Solar Energy Technology Program and Sandia’s Laboratory Directed Research & Development program, and has been presented at four technical conferences this year.

The ability of light to produce electrons, and thus electricity, has been known for more than a hundred years.

[Via]

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Solar Powered Lights

May 30, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Light

Solar Powered Lights – What Are the Benefits?

Executive Summary about Solar Powered Lights by Steve Sight

When you hear the term Solar Powered Lights, what do you think of? Chances are you think of outdoor lights that are powered by the sun. There are solar deck lights, solar post lights, solar pool lights, and solar fairy lights to name a few.

So, let’s get into the topic of the benefits of using solar powered lighting. Below you will find a list of the benefits of Solar Powered Lights and why they are important.

Benefits of Solar Powered Lighting

• Environmentally friendly- Uses natural resources (the sun) to create power. Clean and renewable.
• Very low maintenance.
• Low Cost. Energy from the sun is free.
• Easy to install. No wiring required
• Power outage will not affect your lighting.

Why should you choose Solar Powered Lights? Imagine if you did not have to pay such a high electric bill. With the use of Solar Powered Lights, it would be less.

Now think for a moment, if you were able to convert every electrically run item in your home to solar powered, how much money you could save. When dealing with Solar Powered Lights, the cost of the power is one very important incentive. However, money able to save is only one of the benefits.

Solar Powered Lights are environmentally friendly in comparison to the other more traditional sources of power. They do not pollute like coal, oil, or even nuclear power.

In conclusion, the use of Solar Powered Lights has several different benefits to one’s pocket book as well to the world around us.

Solar Powered Lights – Environmentally Friendly Illumination
Executive Summary about Solar Powered Lights by Armand Hadife

Solar powered lighting fixtures are useful in areas where there are no power supplies available and accented lighting is required.

Solar powered lights save the environment by not using any fossil fuels or releasing any of the pollutants that usual AC powered light sources emit.

The presence of other brighter lights around the solar lamps will also inhibit the lights from illuminating because the solar cells will detect this as day light energy.

Overall, solar powered lights are a great alternative to traditional outdoor lighting, especially if you want to save money on your energy bill.

Check out my other guide on Garden Solar Lights

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Solar Electricity

May 30, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Electricity

Home Solar Electricity – What to Know Before Purchasing Anything

Executive Summary about Solar Electricity by Melanie Crouse

There are even tax rebates available in many states for families that are converting to home solar electricity. If you’ve been thinking of using PV (photovoltaic) panels for your home solar power, but are finding that it is too expensive, there are other options. There are many green energy suppliers that provide power from various renewable resources, such as solar electricity, wind power and hydroelectricity. If you’ve decided that solar power is the way you want to go, you will need to determine your actual power needs first.

The first thing you need to determine is how much electricity you need your home solar electricity system to generate. Do you want a grid-tied system where you are still connected to the grid, using a combination of your own solar power and the power supplied by the utility company? Or you can combine your own home solar electricity system with the grid, selling back any excess power that you don’t use to the power

Designing Solar Electricity Systems For Your Home
Executive Summary about Solar Electricity by Gary Ashby

Are you interested in designing solar electricity systems for your home? Before you build your homemade solar electricity systems, you must first consider the electrical requirements of your household as well as how much energy you wish to generate with the solar panel system.

1. Are You Comfortable Working On The Roof?

2. Is There Enough Space On Your Roof For Solar Panel Installation?

Your roof needs to have enough space for you to build sufficient solar panels on it.

3. What Happens When You Are Able To Generate More Electricity Than The Amount That Your House Requires?

4. How Exactly Do You Put a Solar Electricity System In Your Home?

Thousands of people have already eliminated their own home electricity bills with this free solar energy system that they learned how to build with a step-by-step guide online.

Article You May Be Interested In Reading: Solar Battery

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Solar Electric

May 22, 2009 By: Admin Category: Solar Electricity

The High Costs of Solar Electric Power

Executive Summary about Solar Electric by Klaus H Hemsath

Promotion of solar power generation is booming. Why are solar farms built when financial data clearly show that solar power is still the most expensive electricity generation technology available?

Solar power plant developers and marketers obviously know that they need to lower costs. Cost reduction is, however, expensive and takes time. There are two major technologies for solar energy conversion. Electricity production with steam is a very mature technology. The other technology is the direct, photovoltaic conversion of sunlight into electricity. This technology will most likely become the dominant solar electric power generating technology – eventually. The concentrated sunshine creates very high surface temperatures on the solar panel. To save solar panel area and make the solar panel price competitive, one must cool the surface of the solar panel very efficiently to prevent it from melting and destruction.

Present production costs for generating electricity with solar panels are hovering around $0.50 per kWh. Right now, solar power does not yet make economical sense.

None of the available technologies using renewable energy can compete with the cost of electricity generation from coal.

The technologies for generating electricity with solar power, wind power, marine power, and geothermal power are very well understood. At present, a respectable number of windmill farms and solar panel farms are being installed. Solar power does not make economical sense, yet. A random sampling of recent announcements of solar farm installations reveals that system installation costs are in the $3000 to $7500 per kW installed capacity. These plant costs loosely translate into a cost of producing electric power at $0.30 to $0.60 per kWh. This very unfavorably compares to the cost of electricity generation by any other technology.

As long as solar power constitutes only a very small fraction of overall electric power generation, the additional costs of storing intermittently produced electric power are not yet of concern. If the US is going to depend significantly on the intermittent production of electricity from solar power and wind power, it must begin to develop storage technologies for huge amounts of electric energy. Intermittent, renewable energies and electric energy storage are inseparable.

The Solar Electric Panel – An Inexpensive Way to Generate Electricity
Executive Summary about Solar Electric by Dan A Swanson

The solar electric panels, generally called solar photovoltaic panels, are made of a set of treated silicon cells arranged in a series array. They produce electricity on being exposed to the sunlight. A small solar electric panel will lessen the energy bills considerably, while a big solar panel will in fact budge the meter backwards. The contemporary solar electric panels are simple to install and are modular. The solar electric panels transform the sunlight to DC (direct current) electricity. Buy any of these solar electric panels according to your requirements.

Solar electric panels are the perfect answer to our increasing electricity bills and ever increasing reliance on depleting conventional energy resources. Make a one time investment in solar panels and generate free electricity for years to come. Solar electric panels are the need of the hour.

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