Image credit: Uni-Oldenburg.de

Canada's National Institute for Nanotechnology (Edmonton) and the University of Alberta researchers have engineered a new approach to plastic solar cell performance enhancement. This research could significantly improve plastic solar cell efficiency, which could become a low-cost alternative to sillicon based solar cells. Plastic solar cells are made from layers of different materials, in what's called a sandwich structure. Each material has a certain function, one to collect sunlight, another to generate electricity and yet another to separate the charges and send them to the anodes and cathodes. The trick is to keep the materials ahdered to each other without compromising efficiency.

Basically, the layers of different materials are not formed by stacking them on top of each other, which can produce areas of low to no contact, but rather grow the layer chemically. This ensures much better adherence between materials, and therefore improves efficiency by minimizing no contact areas. For more scientific detail, please take a look at this article.

Increase in efficiency is not drastic, it is still below 10%, unlike silicon based cells which reach 28% efficiency. The point is that even with small improvements, plastic solar cells represent a cheaper alternative to silicon solar cells, making them competitive. Unlike silicon based cells, which require high purity materials, polymers (plastics) are a much lower level material, therefore cheaper, and more easily used in manufacturing processes.

Even though this research is basically a proof of concept, it reperesents a great improvement and gives hope for future research. If a commercially viable model for plastic solar cells (organic) is reached in the future, the technology could become the answer to lowering the cost of solar electricity and bring clean electricity to more homes.

MIT is preparing to announce a new innovation in power storage. MIT professor Dan Nocera introduced a new picture for the energy economy at the Aspen Environment Forum.

According to professor Nocera, all our energy resources and power production, when taking into account power consumption growth, and with 100% savings in current energy use (!), will take us only as far as 2050. His estimate is that we will need about a 16 TW energy production by then, something not achievable with current methods.

The new patent, to be announced next week, will provide a cheap, efficient and manufacturable electrolyzer. The new electrolyzer is going to be made from cobalt and potassium phosphate. Paired with a photovoltaic array on a roof, for example, this system can easily provide power for an average home and additional power for a fuel cell and about 500 km of travel. Best of all, it will take only about 5 liters of water to do this!

This could be a great development that could decentralize power production, giving energy independence to consumers.

Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed two new types of chemical etching which can create features on both the micron and nanometer level. The new surface treatmend methods could help increase light absorption of silicon photovoltaic cells. Absorption is increased by trapping light in three-dimensional structures, created by the etching processes, but also by making the surfaces self-cleanable. Rain and dew can easily wash away dust and dirt that can accumulate on PV cells due to various atmospheric conditions. The surface is classified as superhydrophobic (makes water molecules bead up and roll off).

As is usually the case, nature has already done it, and in this case that hold true. The concept of superhydrophobic surfaces is not new, as can be seen in the case of a lotus leaf, which also uses surface roughnes at two levels to create the bead and roll off effect.

I don't want to overwhelm you with the scientific details of the process, you can see them here if you wish, but the point is that silicon PV cells will now be able to produce more power as less light will be reflected. In fact, Georgia Tech School professor Dennis Hess claims the reflection could be reduced to a mere 5% which is outstanding.

And now the "but's" have to come in, as they usually do with technological advancements. The delicate surface roughness at such a miniscule level is prone to damage from surface abbrasions (ex. sandstorms), which could impede the cells' ability to take in more light energy. The solution may to create large superhydrophobic surfaces, so any damage would be minute compared to the overall absorption surface available.

Rice University researchers have produced a "metamaterial" that is capable of "bending" light and could be a breakthrough that could lead to high-powered optics, ultra-efficient solar cells and even cloaking devices.

The people behind this research are Naomi Halas (award winning nanophotonics pioneer), and graduate student Nikolay Mirin. Their material collects light from any direction and emits it in a single direction. The new material uses very tiny, cup-shaped particles called nanocups. The fact the new material gets its properties from its structure, rather than from its chemical composition, earns it the classification "metamaterial".

Nanocups can focus light in a specific direction, regardless of where the incident light is coming. This makes them an excellent option for solar thermal power, which relies on collected sun light. Basically, this means that a solar panel wouldn't have to keep turning and tilting in order to capture maximum sun light. Reduction in costs would be considerable, as there would be no need for corresponding machinery.

If you are interested in a more scientific look into this research, take a look at this paper on it.