Meet 13-year old

solar panel

developer

Nathan Batalion, Global Health Activist, Healingtalks Editor

Inspiring youth leadership making solar energy advances

Despite the fact that silicon is the market’s most commonly used semiconductor in the majority of electrical devices (which includes PV cells that solar panels employ to transform sunlight into power) it is hardly the most cost-efficient material on the market. For example, the semiconductor gallium arsenide plus connected compound semiconductors offer nearly twice the effectiveness of silicon in photovoltaic products, yet they are rarely utilized in utility-scale applications mainly because of their high production price!

ADVANCES
At the University of Illinois (http://illinois.edu/) J. Rogers and X. Li researched much lower-cost methods to create thin films of gallium arsenide which widened the possible usefulness of these types of units.

TECHNICAL DETAILS
Usually, gallium arsenide is transferred in a individual thin layers on a little wafer. Either the ideal device is made specifically on the wafer, or the semiconductor-coated wafer is cut up into chips of the preferred size. The Illinois team decided to deposit several layers of the material on a single wafer, creating a layered or “pancake” stack of gallium arsenide thin films. If you increase 10 levels in one growth, you only have to load the wafer 1 time. If you do this in ten growths, loading and unloading with temperature ramp-up and ramp-down takes a lot of time. If you also take into account exactly what is necessary for every growth – the machine, the research, and the workers’ time – the overhead saving that this approach offers equals a sizable price reduction. After that the researchers individually peeled off the levels and move them. To complete this, the stacks swap layers of aluminum arsenide with the gallium arsenide. Bathing the stacks in a solution of acid and an oxidizing agent dissolves the layers of aluminum arsenide, freeing the single thin sheets of gallium arsenide. A soft stamp-like system picks up the layers, just one at a time from the top down, and for move to another substrate – glass, plastic-type or silicon, depending on the application. After that the wafer may be used again for an additional growth.

RESULT
By doing this it’s possible to make significantly more material faster and with greater price efficiently. This process could create bulk amounts of material, as opposed to merely the thin single-layer manner in which it is typically grown. Freeing the material from the wafer also starts the possibility of flexible, thin-film electronics made with gallium arsenide or different high-speed semiconductors. It is significant to make conforming products with advanced performance at lower costs.

MANY APPLICATIONS
In a paper published online 5/20/2010 in the newspaper Nature (http://www.nature.com/), the team explains its techniques and demonstrates 3 types of units making use of gallium arsenide chips manufactured in such multilayer stacks: light units, high-speed transistors and photovoltaic cells. The creators additionally supply a comprehensive cost comparison. An additional advantage of the multilayer method is the release from area constraints, especially important for solar cells. As the layers are taken away from the stack, they can be laid out side-by-side on another substrate in order to generate a significantly bigger surface area, whereas the typical single-layer procedure limits area to the dimension of the wafer. For solar panels, you want big area coverage to catch as much sunshine as achievable. In an extreme case we might increase sufficient layers to have 10 times the area of the standard.

WHAT’S NEXT
Next, the team plans to explore many more potential item applications and other semiconductor resources which might adapt to multilayer growth.

SOURCE OF THIS POST:
Shannon Combs shares her knowledge for the <a href=”http://www.residentialsolarpanels.org/”>residential solar power systems cost</a> site, her personal hobby blog focused on tips to assist home owners to conserve energy with sun power.

PHOTOS:

http://www.residentialsolarpanels.org/thin_film_solar.jpg

http://www.residentialsolarpanels.org/solar_arsenium.jpg

COMPLETE BIO

http://www.residentialsolarpanels.org/about

http://www.residentialsolarpanels.org/files/photos/shannon.jpg

SOLAR CELL BREAKTHOUGHS

Solar Cell Breakthrough

Currently under development is a new solar cell technology that is said to be about 90% efficient. The silicon wires absorb up to 96 percent of “incident sunlight” and 85 percent of  “collectible sunlight,”  breaking previous records.  These solar cells are also not primarily made of silicon but 98% plastic, which will significantly reduce the cost as an added and tremendous bonanza.

SOLAR REVOLUTION IN THE MAKING
This offers the prospect of revolutionizing energy production here and around the world. It can get everyone of the grid.   These cells are currently under development at the California Institute of Technology.

WHAT THE NEW SOLAR CELLS CONSIST OF
The new solar cells have tiny silicon wires that measure just 1 micron, thus using minimal silicon in their construction.  These wires are strung into plastic plates where they more efficiently convert sunlight into solar power.  Only two percent of the cell is composed of semi-conductors. They are about the same thickness as conventional solar cells.

PRIOR BREAKTHROUGH
Nanosolar has developed a highly thin roll-out printed on metal foil solar technology that currently is only used for commercial purposes. It is competitive with coal’s generation of electrical energy and gets 15-16% efficiency but at a very low cost.  It was named the best invention of the year for 2008 by Time Magazine

GOING MAINSTREAM
The development of new solar cells that are both more efficient and less costly portends that solar power will soon go mainstream.

PROTECTING OUR PLANET
With new renewable energies we can stop the current drift toward increasing global warming and other non-sustainable trends.