Solar Photovoltaic Technology Marketing Summaries

Polymer-based photovoltaic devices have received intense interest in recent years because of their potential to provide low-cost solar energy conversion, flexibility, manufacturability, and light weight.  However, the efficiency of organic solar cells is about 4-6%, and increasing this efficiency is critical for developing practical applications and commercially viable devices.  One approach to increasing efficiency is to increase the light absorption on the organic film without... read more

This stepwise surface assembly procedure results in high quality quantum dot-fullerene dimers with controllable linker length and a high yield of dimer species. The formation of dimers is ensured due to steric repulsion during assembly.

LANL’s Aligned-Crystalline Silicon (ACSi) technology provides highly crystalline silicon films on inexpensive substrates, such as metal sheets and glass plates.  ACSi films exhibit good electrical and optical properties and have the potential to make an impact on the solar cell industry.

The current ACSi prototype, designed under subpar tooling conditions in a non-optimal environment, already demonstrates 2% conversion efficiency. 

In an effort to help build a sufficient supply of clean energy, scientists from Argonne National Laboratory have developed a method to create improved hybrid solar cells through the ultraviolet polymerization of a polymer precursor.

Thin film solar cells have been the focus of many research facilities in recent years that are working to decrease manufacturing costs and increase cell efficiency. Cadmium telluride (CdTe) has been well recognized as a promising photovoltaic material for thin film solar cells because of its near-optimum bandgap of ~1.5 eV and its high absorption coefficient. Researchers at NREL have found a unique way to dramatically increase efficiencies of substrate-configured CdTe solar cells.

Substrate-con... read more

Antireflective (AR) coatings on solar cells increase the efficiency of the cells by suppressing reflection, which allows more photons to enter a silicon (Si) wafer and increases the flow of electricity. Traditional AR coatings however, add significant cost to the solar cell manufacturing process. NREL scientists have devised a method and created a nanostructured Si wafer, or black Si, which eliminates the need for a traditional AR coating while achieving comparable or higher solar cell... read more

The solar market has changed dramatically over the last three years as an influx of low cost silicon (Si) and entered the market. The once high cost for solar panels, along with high margins for solar manufacturers, has been removed. The current market is characterized by consolidation, increasing competition, and steady bankruptcies. In order to gain a competitive edge, manufacturers are now looking to decrease the amount of materials used in solar photovoltaic (PV) cells. Traditionally this... read more

The first generation of solar cells, used in 90% of today's cells, have a focus of high efficiency. These cells use a single p-n junction to extract energy from photons, and are manufactured from silicon semiconductors. This allows for about 30% efficiency, but resulted in a price too high to compete with fossil fuels (payback time of about 5-7 years). The second generation of solar cells focuses on low production costs using thin film cells, which resulted in much lower efficiency rates.... read more

The solar market has changed dramatically over the last three years as an influx of low cost silicon (Si) has entered the market. In order to gain a competitive edge, manufacturers are now looking to decrease the amount of materials used in solar photovoltaic (PV) cells.  While traditionally this effort has concentrated only a few thin-film manufacturing materials and techniques, the drop in Si prices has forced for the development of innovations in deposition and advanced manufacturing... read more

Scientists at Idaho National Laboratory have invented a new method of producing quantum particles of varying dimensions by employing supercritical fluid process. The process exposes a single source precursor to a supercritical fluid, such as carbon dioxide, scientists developed a process to form nanoparticles for use in semi-conductor devices.

Solar photovoltaics are a promising source of renewable energy, but are not yet poised to compete with energy derived from fossil fuels due to their high cost and low electrical output. In order to better compete with fossil fuels, researchers are attempting to create a second generation of cheaper, more efficient solar cells. Nanocrystal inks are the frontrunner in this race, but current nanocrystal ink technologies are only modestly efficient because of their low charge-transport... read more

Thin-film solar cells are expected to replace the current first generation of solar photovoltaic technology due to their lower manufacturing cost and increased electrical output. Nanocrystal cells, one of the second generation of solar photovoltaics, offer the advantage of tunable optical and electrical properties, allowing manufacturers to optimize the cell’s power output. Although these cells offer many advantages, current forms of the technology must be annealed in order to increase... read more

Solar panels are designed as a photovoltaic module. The energy producing aspect of the photovoltaic module has two primary steps. The first is a semiconducting material such as silicon that can absorb the photons from sunlight, knocking electrons from atoms to produce a flow of electricity. The next step is conversion of the electricity into direct current through an array of solar cells.

The first generation of solar cells, used in 90% of today’s cells, have a focus of high efficiency.... read more

Solar panels, or photovoltaic panels, use photovoltaic cells to create energy. These cells create direct current through absorption of sunlight's photons by silicon, allowing electrons to be stripped from atoms. The direct current is then inverted and either stored in a battery or immediately used for energy. The current silicon-based solar cells have a limiting efficiency of about 30% for a variety of reasons. Current cells can only absorb a portion of the light the sun produces, and... read more

The transportation sector currently accounts for 70% of petroleum consumption and more than a third of green house gas emissions in the US. Studies have shown that  major reductions in GHG emissions can be accomplished by transitioning to battery powered automobiles. However, the large battery systems required could be problematic due to high cost in combination with limited specific energy, safety issues, as well as limited cycle and calendar life. 

A DC-to-DC converter takes a direct... read more

At production costs less than $.80/Watt, Cadmium Telluride (CdTe) thin film technology exists as the lowest cost per watt choice for solar technology.  This characteristic is due partly to the single-phase nature of the absorber layer and the ease with which the CdTe source material can be formed into thin films required for module production.

During the 20+ years of research, NREL’s CdTe Group has directed its efforts at producing CdTe structures that allow more light to... read more

Scientists at LLNL have invented a durable, ultra-thin coating for mirrors that rivals currently used silver, reflecting over a broad spectral range from infrared to visible to ultraviolet light. Silver is an excellent material for high-efficiency reflectors.  It has the highest reflectance of all of the metals in the wavelength range from 400 nm through the far infrared. Yet sometimes mirror applications require high reflectance over a broader spectral range (e.g., 300 to 10,000 nm) than... read more

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s 2010 International Energy Outlook, solar energy is expected to grow globally by 12.7% per year until 2035; more than any other renewable energy source. To meet this demand, the renewable energy industry must develop and manufacture photovoltaic (PV) cells that are less expensive, more reliable, and more efficient in converting solar energy into electricity.

Quantum efficiency (QE) is the standard test which indicates how well a... read more

Bulk heterojunction photovoltaic cells are a type of solar cell formed by sandwiching two semiconducting materials, one p-type and one n-type, between two electrodes. Charge carriers are produced at the junction between semiconductor types and diffuse toward an electrode where they can be harnessed to produce electricity. The inventive nanopillared electrodes reduce the distance charge carriers must travel to encounter an electrode.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that a $1 per watt installed photovoltaic (PV) solar energy system - equivalent to 5-6¢/kilowatt hour (kWh) — would make non subsidized solar competitive with the wholesale rate of electricity, nearly everywhere in the United States.  In order to reach this goal, manufacturers in the highly competitive solar manufacturing industry have placed a greater focus on two important aspects of their processes - throughput and efficiency.... read more

Argonne National Laboratory and partner Northwestern University have invented a nanostructured photovoltaic device that allows dramatic cost savings of up to 70% compared to crystalline silicon solar cells.  Photovoltaic manufacturing is an emerging industry that promises a carbon-free, nearly limitless source of energy for our nation.  However, the high-temperature manufacturing of conventional silicon-based photovoltaics is extremely energy-intensive.  The nanostructured... read more