By Karen Pease •
January 21, 2009
Since the late 1800s, the primary impediment to the adoption of electric vehicles has been battery technology. And while the technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last decade or two (compare your cell phone with one from the early 90s), with a threefold improvement in energy density and more than an order of magnitude improvement in power density, it still lags behind gasoline.
Some have argued that current technology is sufficient — that the ability to drive 1 1/2 hours to 3 hours nonstop is good enough for the overwhelming majority of trips, and that paired with a range extender, rapid chargers, or battery swapping, you have a viable means of replacing the gasoline car. However, there still is a great deal of pressure to get electric vehicle range up to that of gasoline.
Enter Yi Cui. Again.
By Andrew Williams •
November 14, 2008
Solar PV manufacturer Oerlikon Solar has pioneered a new thin film solar technology process, which it claims has made its solar cells 7 per cent efficient - a 16 per cent energy improvement over its previous technology. The advance has led to a 50 per cent increase in the capacity of its thin film solar fabrication plant.
So, why is this important? Well, thin film cells are typically a lot cheaper to produce than more common silicon solar cells, but often suffer from significantly lower conversion efficiencies. Oerlikon’s breakthrough moves us a lot closer to the day when thin film becomes more cost-effective than silicon-based panels - which could mean a dramatic rise in the adoption of solar power in homes and businesses.
By Ariel Schwartz •
November 6, 2008
Solar energy is necessary for our transition to a sustainable economy, but a recent study in Geophysical Research Letters suggests that the industry may be harming the environment. Nitrogen Triflouride (NF3), a greenhouse gas used by the semiconductor industry to clean the chambers where silicon chips are produced, has 17,000 times the globe-warming capacity of CO2. Now researchers believe that emissions of the gas are up to 4 times higher than previously thought—perhaps as high as 16 percent.
By Alex Felsinger •
November 6, 2008
The solar cells, about the size of a 12-point font letter ‘o,’ are being tested to eventually power microscopic machines, such as those used to test chemical leaks in the air.
The researchers at the University of South Florida say these are some of the smallest solar cells ever, with twenty aligning to form one panel at just one inch. Typical single cells are around two inches across on their own, and then form the large silicon panels we see on rooftops.
By Ariel Schwartz •
October 14, 2008
Many new solar energy companies are working on silicon alternatives, but 1366 Technologies is taking a different approach— the MIT-founded company has invented both a new cell architecture for multi-crystalline solar cells and a manufacturing process to lower the cost of the cells. The process is so effective that 1366 believes it can make solar cost-competitive with coal by 2012. And with this week’s opening of the company’s solar manufacturing facility, that vision may actually come true.
By Andrew Williams •
October 12, 2008
A newly discovered material called ‘black silicon’ is between 100 and 500 times more sensitive to light than conventional silicon, and could be used to revolutionize solar energy generation.
The material was discovered when a team of Harvard University scientists shone an ultra-powerful laser (briefly producing the same amount of energy as the sun falling on the entire surface of the Earth) on a silicon wafer, before adding sulphur hexafluoride. The result was a silicon wafer that looked black to the naked eye, but when examined under an electron microscope turned out to be covered with a massive amount of ultra-tiny spikes.
By Ariel Schwartz •
October 6, 2008
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Northwestern University have developed a new type of silicon solar cell that is flexible enough to be used on a curved surface or fabric. Currently, most solar cells are rigid due to the use of plastic in their production.
By Andrew Williams •
October 5, 2008
An Australian scientist has developed a new method of manufacturing solar cells using nothing more than some nail polish remover, a pizza oven and a standard inkjet printer.
The iJET technique is so easy and cheap to carry out that it could revolutionize access to solar technology in the developing world.
In a recent radio interview (audio), Nicole Kuepper, a 23 year-old PhD student at the University of New South Wales, explained the process.
By Carol Gulyas •
July 30, 2008
As tech giants rush into the solar cell business, their competition promises to bring down the cost of solar photovoltaic (PV) panels used to generate electricity. PV modules use silicon cells, which are also used in computer chips. But with the traditional chip business growing at only 5% annually, tech companies are looking for a new market niche to grow.
This is good news for the solar industry, where cost [...]
The demand for solar energy is expanding rapidly, but one of the industry’s obstacles to even faster growth has always been the difficulty of getting enough silicon to make photovoltaic cells for solar panels.
This week, though, IBM announced a new potential source for much-needed silicon: waste silicon wafers used to make semiconductor chips for computers,
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Photo Courtesy of Solaicx
Solaicx, a manufacturing company that produces high-efficiency silicon wafers for photovoltaic solar power, has announced a new facility planned for Portland, Oregon.
The 136,000-square-foot plant will produce silicon ingots, which are logs of pure silicon that get heated to high temperatures and sliced like lunch meat to make silicon wafers. The wafers are the semiconductor materials in solar panels. The process for producing and processing
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