Thin Film Photovoltaics
SNEC 2013: Manz features PV production equipment
14 May 2013POSTED IN New Products
Manz AG, which specialises in production equipment for solar cell and panel, display, and lithium-ion batteries, will spotlight integrated solutions at SNEC this week in Shanghai. Being shown are solutions for manufacturing crystalline solar cells as well as its turnkey production line for thin-film solar panels, the Manz CIGSfab.
See-Through Solar Cells can Generate Energy from Windows
13 May 2013POSTED IN Applications News
New Energy Technologies, Inc., developer of see-through solar cells for generating electricity on glass windows, today announced that researchers have successfully achieved faster fabrication time, improved transparency, and a two-fold increase in power conversion efficiency. Researchers achieved today's advances by way of a novel, patent-pending breakthrough, which enables fabrication of large-scale mini-module SolarWindow devices, important to commercial deployment glass window capable of generating electricity.
Nanoplasmonic Solar Cell Research From Lab to Pilot Project
08 May 2013POSTED IN Applications News
A $4 million injection of funding will see researchers at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia and CSIRO take nanoplasmonic solar cell technology from the lab to a small scale pilot project.
Pentacene Coating Could Push Solar Cell Efficiency Beyond Shockley-Queisser Limit
25 April 2013POSTED IN Research
Thanks to a new coating developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), solar cells could produce two electrons for every particle of light harvested at the green and blue wavelengths. The research advance could be the key to solar cell efficiencies beyond the Shockley-Queisser limit, which proposes that the ultimate conversion efficiency can never exceed 34% for a single optimised semiconductor junction.
Sol Voltaics' Nano Process May Boost Solar Efficiency 25%
10 April 2013POSTED IN Applications News
Sol Voltaics unveiled SolInk, an economical nanomaterial that promises to increase the efficiency of crystalline silicon or thin film solar modules by up to 25% or more, leading to solar power plants and rooftop solar arrays that will generate far more electricity than today's best commercially available systems.
Bottom-Up Growth Key to 4.9% Efficient QD Solar Cells
09 April 2013POSTED IN Research
New research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts (US), shows that bottom-up-grown one-dimensional nanostructures can significantly improve the performance of colloidal quantum dot (QD) solar cells. In fact, the MIT team demonstrated a solar power conversion efficiency of 4.9%, which is among the highest reported for zinc-oxide-based quantum dot photovoltaics (QDPV).
R. James Woolsey Joins Solexant Board of Directors
27 March 2013POSTED IN Business News
R. James Woolsey, a seasoned veteran of Washington, DC and Silicon Valley, has joined the board of directors of Solexant, according to an announcement made by the company’s CEO Brad Mattson.
Solar Decathlon China 2013: First Solar Donates Solar to IMUT Team
18 March 2013POSTED IN Business News
First Solar, Inc. announced today that a team of students from Inner Mongolia University of Technology (IMUT) will use the Company's advanced thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) modules to power its house in the 2013 Solar Decathlon China competition. First Solar donated 150 of its PV modules with a peak generating capacity of 13 kilowatts (KW) to IMUT's "Team Green Sun" and will provide technical support for the project team, as well as collaborating with IMUT on solar education. This is the third time First Solar has supported the Solar Decathlon competitions.
PV Recycling: Update on legal and technology issues
17 March 2013POSTED IN Applications Features
Recycling of end-of-life PV modules is not an extremely popular topic in the current economic difficult times for the PV industry. However, legislation in Europe creates a pressure to act.
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.
Neutron Scattering Technique May Increase Thin-Film Solar Efficiency
11 March 2013POSTED IN Research
Engineers and scientists from the University of Sheffield, UK, have pioneered a new technique — called SERGIS — to measure the structure of PCBM crystallites (a fullerene derivative of the C60 buckyball) in thin-film solar cell materials, which will ultimately help to make the cells more efficient.
SolarWindow Moves Closer to Commercialisation
06 March 2013POSTED IN Applications News
New Energy Technologies, Inc. announced that the company has entered into Phase 2 of its Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to advance the development of its SolarWindow.
Yale’s Carbon Nanotube Thin Film Could Advance Si Solar Cells
04 March 2013POSTED IN Research
A carbon nanotube (CNT) thin film developed by researchers at the Yale University could prove a novel and cost-effective way to realise superior photovoltaic properties of crystalline solar cells. The hybrid carbon nanotube/silicon solar cells may have unmatched power conversion efficiency.
SkyFuel Selected for US DOE Funding
26 February 2013POSTED IN Applications News
SkyFuel’s mirror film subsidiary, ReflecTech, is one of 70 companies selected to receive funding under the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) 2013 Small Business Innovation Research program to explore new technologies with strong potential for commercialization and job creation in clean energy.
Under the program, ReflecTech will perform the fundamental research to further advance highly weatherable reflective film.
Singulus Grows Korean PV Business
25 February 2013POSTED IN Business News
Singulus Technologies has selected DKSH as its partner of choice in Korea.
Layered Oxide Heterostructures for Ultra-Efficient, Ultra-Thin Solar Cells
24 February 2013POSTED IN Research
In their quest for advanced solar cell materials, researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna), Austria, in collaboration with colleagues from Germany and the US, are exploring a new class of materials where single atomic layers are combined to create novel materials with entirely new properties. Computer simulations revealed that layered oxide heterostructures hold great potential for ultra-efficient, ultra-thin solar cells.
Swiss University Sets Thin-Film Efficiency Record
15 February 2013POSTED IN Applications News
EPFL’s Institute of Microengineering (IMT) has achieved a 10.7% efficiency single-junction microcrystalline silicon solar cell, surpassing the previous world record of 10.1% held by the Japanese company Kaneka Corporation since 1998, according to the Swiss university.
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.
Roadmap and Standards for US Solar Thin Film
29 January 2013POSTED IN Business News
SEMI and the US Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium (PVMC) today announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to enhance their cooperation in the areas of standards and roadmap activities for the solar thin film industry.
MicroTech Announces Solar Thin Film Production Tool Product Line
21 January 2013POSTED IN New Products
MicroTech, a Fremont, California-based wet process station supplier, has launched a product line specifically designed for high throughput processing of thin film solar cells. These cells can produce substantial cost reduction and cell integration by processing an entire array of solar cells on a single substrate, the company says.
