Labs - Government
“Best Yet” Battery Design to Stabilise Solar Power for Grid
05 May 2013POSTED IN Research
Researchers from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University developed a simplified, highly scalable new battery design with significantly higher energy density that could stabilise the power output of alternative forms of energy, such as solar. As potential solution to notorious power fluctuation issues, the low-cost, long-life flow battery could thus enable solar energy to become a major supplier to the electrical grid.
US PV Consortium and NREL Team to Develop Thin-Film PV
15 March 2013POSTED IN Applications News
The US Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (PVMC), an industry-led collaboration headquartered in New York at the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), has partnered with the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to improve manufacturing processes for thin-film CIGS photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules, including products, metrology and reliability that will support the US solar industry in the development, manufacturing, and commercialization of next-generation solar PV systems.
If Darwin Had Designed a Solar Cell…
11 February 2013POSTED IN Research
Using a mathematical search algorithm based on natural evolution, researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (US) have designed a geometrically patterned light-scattering layer that could make organic solar cells more efficient and less expensive by maximizing the time light is trapped in the device.
Multi-Junction Solar Cell to Break Efficiency Barrier
22 January 2013POSTED IN Research
The US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is kicking off a collaborative three-year materials and device development programme to explore multi-junction (MJ) solar devices that could break the 50% conversion efficiency barrier under concentrated illumination. The major technology breakthrough needed to push the efficiency of a triple-junction solar cell much beyond the current world record of 44% could come with novel semiconductor materials lattice-matched to Indium phosphide (InP). NRL researchers have already produced a realistically achievable design for such a record-breaking lattice-matched multi-junction solar cell.
NREL Research Fellow Howard Branz Named APS Fellow
14 January 2013POSTED IN Business News
A solar energy scientist at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) who has done pioneering and breakthrough work on thin films and nanostructures has been elected a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). NREL Research Fellow Howard Branz was elected an APS fellow for “seminal research on thin-film silicon: defects, metastability, growth processes, nano-structuring and solar cells,” said James Riordan, spokesman for the APS.
Award-Winning PV Cell Could Stride Toward 50% Efficiency
11 January 2013POSTED IN Research
In their quest for progressively efficient photovoltaic devices, scientists in the III-V Multijunction Photovoltaics Group at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have been trying to prevail over the solar spectrums boundaries and unchanging rules since the 1990s, when they began their search for easy-to-grow materials with ideal band gaps.
US $14M Investment in Solar Research
30 November 2012POSTED IN Applications News
Eight solar research efforts have been announced among 66 projects receiving funding through the US Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy Open 2012 program.
Multiple Exciton Generation Boosts Solar Efficiency
30 October 2012POSTED IN Research
Scientists from the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have demonstrated the first high-efficiency quantum dot solar cell (QDSC) with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) exceeding 100% for photons with energies in the solar range. Moreover, these QDSCs, which potentially could be fabricated at very low cost, could reach 44% efficiency through Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG). Current commercial technologies are limited to 31%.
Solar Summit Freiburg 2012
22 October 2012POSTED IN Editors Blogs
The solar research community met in Freiburg,Germany, 18-19 October, at the Fifth Solar Summit 2012 which was again hosted by Fraunhofer ISE.
How Solvent Mixtures Affect Organic Solar Cell Structure
12 October 2012POSTED IN Research
Physicists from the North Carolina State University (NC State) in the US, in collaboration with teams of scientists from the United Kingdom, Australia and China, studied whether controlling the mixing between acceptor and donor layers (or domains) in polymer-based solar cells could increase their efficiency.
SkyFuel Wins 2012 SolarPaces Technology Award
19 September 2012POSTED IN Business News
SkyFuel, Inc. was honoured with the 2012 Technology Award at the annual SolarPaces Conference, held on 11-14 September 2012 in Marrakech, Morocco. The award was won for the development of ReflecTechPlus—a high-reflectance, durable, silvered polymer film designed to reduce the lifecycle cost of parabolic-trough solar fields. ReflecTechPlus has proven to be durable outdoors for more than 30 years and incorporates an abrasion-resistant coating. The film was developed by ReflecTech, Inc. in collaboration with the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
Areva Solar, US Sandia Labs Join Forces for CLFR Molten-Salt Storage
12 September 2012POSTED IN Applications News
Areva Solar is collaborating with US Sandia National Laboratories on a new concentrated solar power (CSP) installation with thermal energy storage. The CSP storage project combines Areva’s modular Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) solar design with Sandia Labs’ proven molten-salt storage system. This will be the first CSP integration with Sandia Labs’ Molten-Salt Test Loop System located at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Solar Thermal Test Facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico (US).
Electric-Field Doping Could Make any Semiconductor Suitable for PV
20 August 2012POSTED IN Research
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California Berkeley have discovered a new way to make high-efficiency, low-cost photovoltaics from virtually any semiconductor — even materials previously considered unsuitable for solar cells. The technology, called screening-engineered field-effect photovoltaics (or SFPV), involves doping semiconductors by applying an electric field through a nanostructured electrode.
Sharp Solar Modules Confirmed as PID-Resistant
07 August 2012POSTED IN Business News
Fraunhofer Centre for Silicon Photovoltaics (CSP) has officially confirmed that Sharp Solar photovoltaic (PV) modules are potential-induced degradation (PID) resistant. The Sharp module tested was the ND-R250A5, a high-performance PV module made of polycrystalline silicon solar cells with module efficiencies of 15.2%.
Suniva Powers Carbon-Neutral Lab at Georgia Tech
26 July 2012POSTED IN Applications News
Suniva, Inc., a US manufacturer of high-efficiency crystalline silicon (c-Si) solar cells and modules, today announced its modules are powering a new Carbon-Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). The 45,000 square foot (~4200 square metre) facility will be used for the research of energy-efficient technologies and carbon sequestration.
Intersolar NA 2012: Attaining a renewable future
11 July 2012POSTED IN Editors Blogs
Intersolar North America 2012 opened this week in San Francisco with a ceremony that culminated in the signing of a memorandum of understanding among the three leading solar research institutes in the world: Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE, Germany), National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL, US), and National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, Japan).
35 Years of NREL Innovations, Breakthroughs, Discoveries
05 July 2012POSTED IN Applications News
Thirty-five years ago this month, when US President Jimmy Carter opened the Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI) in Golden, Colorado, US, gas cost $0.62 (USD) a gallon and solar power cost about $100 per watt (/W). Now, the price of gas at the pump is $3.89 a gallon and the installed cost of solar power is about $4/W. That's a 6-fold increase in the cost of gas and a 95% reduction in the cost of solar since SERI was formed.
High-Efficiency Solar Cell Brings CPV Closer to Grid Parity
28 June 2012POSTED IN Research
The SJ3 solar cell developed by the US Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with industrial partner Solar Junction has been named one of 2012’s most significant innovations by R&D Magazine. The cell uses tunable bandgaps, lattice-matched architecture and ultra-concentration tunnel junctions to achieve a world-record conversion efficiency of 43.5% with potential to reach 50%.
Exciton Research Rewrites Design Rules for Polymers
25 June 2012POSTED IN Research
Lin X. Chen at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory is taking a fresh approach to improving organic solar cells by investigating the exciton, a “quasi-particle” few other researchers have focused on in the quest to help this promising yet seemingly lab-bound technology break out into the real world.
Advancing Electricity-Generating Window Coatings
21 June 2012POSTED IN Research
Earlier this spring, we reported on a breakthrough in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV): a virtually ‘invisible’ conductive wiring system that transports electricity on glass windows, developed by New Energy Technologies, Inc. at the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Now the partners announced an improvement in its manufacturing technique that should lead to higher speed, lower costs and greater durability for the coatings.
