Nanosolar VS heeft een methode ontwikkeld om goedkoop siliciumvrije zonnecellen te drukken die zo dun zijn als een laagje verf.
Vijf lagen. De onderste drager-geleider is gemaakt van Al-folie waarop laag twee, een coating van molybdeen, is aangebracht. De derde laag is haflgeleider inkt, bestaande uit nanodeeltjes van Cu gallium en selenium, waarin de vrije electronen ontstaan. Op deze inktlaag zit een pn-overgang die de electronen doorgeeft aan een vijfde laag, een transparante zinkoxide electrode.
The Second Wave came about a decade ago with the arrival of the first commercial "thin-film" solar cells. This established that new solar cells based on a stack of layers 100 times thinner than silicon wafers can make a solar cell that is just as good. However, the first thin-film approaches were handicapped by two issues:
The Third Wave of solar power consists of companies addressing the above shortcomings and opportunities. Most every of the new companies address one or the other of the above aspects. One company, Nanosolar, brings together the entire conjunction of all seven areas of innovation, each break-through in their own right, to deliver a dramatic improvement in the cost-efficiency, yield, and throughput of the production of much thinner solar cells.Top
"Oil ... is not only polluting the air, it is also promoting terror," said the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has long promoted Israel's now powerful high-tech industries.
Peres argued that manifold increases in oil prices in recent years had contributed to a rise in financing for terrorism in the Middle East, and said an Israeli project to design a green car run on batteries, as well as plans to develop solar power, would in turn hit oil producing countries' budgets.
"We are not going to fight the producers of oil," he said. "But we are going to introduce alternatives."Top
7-5-2008
Organic photovoltaics (OPV) offers the promise of significant disruption in pricing and aesthetics, as well as impressive efficiencies in low light conditions. OPV materials are also flexible and form-fitting. This stuff can potentially be wrapped around or even painted onto various materials.
But in order for OPV companies to even consider competing, they have to at least measure up to the efficiency we see in current thin-film, where we've now seen levels at around 9% commercially, and 19.5% in the lab.
Today,we're looking at OPV efficiencies at between 5% and 6.25%.
This stuff is not ready for prime-time power generation, as it simply cannot compete with other forms of solar power generation or even conventional forms of power generation.
Hermann Scheer has been described both as the "solar king" and the "Stalin of windpower", but the German MP behind the revolutionary project to make his country completely energy self-sufficient is sanguine. "Our dependence on fossil fuels amounts to global pyromania," he says, letting out the characteristically jolly chuckle that escapes whenever he is making a serious point. "And the only fire extinguisher we have at our disposal is renewable energy".
"The key to it working is that consumers have guaranteed access to the grid at guaranteed prices," explains 63-year-old Scheer, a qualified economist. This probably goes further than any single piece of national legislation in the world to encourage the growth of the renewable energy industry.
Scheer's law has created whole new industries - wind power, which employs 80,000 people in Germany, and photovoltaic (solar) power, which employs 40,000. The jobs are, in effect, subsidised, but in time this will become less and less significant because of the system's commercial success. Both wind and solar sectors are growing at around 30% a year, making them attractive for investors and for developers of technology. The potential returns are huge.
He dismisses the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform's view that the feed-in tariff, with its system of subsidies, stifles competition. "The fact is that the subsidies paid for fossil and nuclear energy are much higher - hundreds of millions of pounds a year - around 10 times more than has been spent on renewables over the past two decades," he says. "And nuclear power stations, for instance, are even relieved from having to pay their huge insurance bill because the taxpayer picks it up. So this argument about renewables and subsidies doesn't stand up.
Scheer, a holder of the Alternative Nobel Prize, and a self-described "possibilist", would like to reverse the view in Britain, which he refers to as "the unbroken power of one-dimensional thinking", by demonstrating how free and plentiful renewables are compared to fossil fuels and nuclear. "The amount of sun, wind, geothermal and bioenergy at our disposal is by far sufficient," he says. "Take just the sun - it sends around 15,000 times more energy to our planet than all 6 billion people need. These resources are indefinite and cheap - the sun and wind won't be sending you a bill, and neither can you privatise them.
Scheer is the author of the seminal works A Solar Manifesto and The Solar Economy, the most widely-read books on the subject of the transition to renewable energy. In them he argues that modern technologies will help create a "solar information society". Backing his point is the world's first mass implementation programme of photovoltaic solar energy roofs, which Scheer helped to push. It saw 100,000 solar roofs installed in homes and businesses across Germany.
Konarka develops and manufactures solar plastic films that convert light to energy – anywhere. As the leading developer of polymer-based, organic photovoltaic (OPV) technology that provide a source of renewable power in a variety of form factors, Konarka has a broad portfolio of patents, technology licenses and an accomplished technical, scientific and manufacturing team. Manufactured at low cost and low energy consumption, the company's Power Plastic technology is lightweight, flexible, scalable and adaptable for use in a variety of commercial, industrial, government and consumer applications. Konarka Technologies is headquartered in Lowell, Mass., U.S.A. and has a full scale production manufacturing facility in New Bedford, Mass. U.S.A.(overgenomen van de failliete fotoproducent Polaroid plus een deel van het personeel), with European headquarters in Nürenberg, Germany, business development offices in Asia and a research and development facility in Austria.
Solar Power International, previously called Solar Power Conference and Expo, was created in 2004 when the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) joined together in partnership to create a business-to-business solar conference and expo in the U.S. With an industry growth rate of more than 40% per year, Solar Power International is a place where industry comes together with potential customers, policymakers, investors and other parties necessary for continued rapid growth.
For more information on Solar Power International, visit: solarpowerconference.com
16-11-2008 Deze centrale zal gebaseerd zijn op een aantal SunCatchers, gebouwd door Stirling Energy Systems.
Een paraboolspiegel met 82 elementen, focuseert de zonnewarmte op een "ketel" waarin waterstof gas wordt verhit. Dit medium circuleert door een 4 cilinder (elk 95 cc) Stirlingmotor, die een generator aandrijft.
Een SunCatcher kan 85,6 kW thermisch vermogen omzetten in 26,75 kW elektrisch vermogen: 31,25% rendement.