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Flamac, a unit of SIM vzw, advised that it will work with imec to develop new semiconductor materials for solar cell applications. The collaboration will see the companies produce materials that are alternates for the standard CIGS solar cells.
A new world-record efficiency of 8.3% has been claimed for a polymer-based single junction organic solar cell in an inverted device stack. Research house, imec and industrial partners Polyera and Solvay developed the proprietary inverted bulk heterojunction architecture, which resulted in achieving much higher efficiencies that other organic thin film cells have to date. Work is ongoing to increase the cell size and lifetime, a key challenge for organic-based cells.
Research and analysis firm NanoMarkets has published a new report entitled “Emerging Markets for Non-ITO Transparent Conductive Oxides”, detailing the market opportunities for non-indium tin oxide (ITO) TCOs. The report’s findings suggest that the market for these materials will reach approximately US$925 million by 2016.
Magnolia Solar will be updating the scientific community of its results towards the development of a high-efficiency, thin-film solar cell during the 22nd Space Photovoltaic Research and Technology (SPRAT) Conference in Cleveland, Ohio on September 22. Magnolia was working under the Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) with Kopin Corporation and MicroLink Devices.
Dr. Roger Welser, CTO of Magnolia will present the latest technical results in his “Thin-Film Quantum Well Waveguide Solar Cells,” presentation at the SPRAT conference.
It’s being called the most efficient colloidal quantum dot (CQD) solar cell ever and a team of international researchers is being praised for the new development. Researchers from the University of Toronto (U of T), King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) and Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) have created the new CQD solar cell based off the need for a design that compacts quantum dots together so that less distance between the quantum dots equals a higher efficiency.
Solar3D advised that its team of researchers and engineers had completed the design for its new three-dimensional (3-D) solar cell. The company advised that with this latest milestone, it is on target to complete a working prototype by the end of the year.
Under the joint research agreement between Natcore Technology and Rice University, researchers, led by Professor Andrew Barron, announced that they had constructed two sets of multilayer quantum dot films: one with silicon (Si) quantum dots and the other with germanium (Ge) quantum dots. The team notes that both dot films have shown the ability to create a photo-generated current and that the thin-film solar cell advancement could eradicate the need for a silicon wafer subcell.
In the Department of Energy’s latest move to help foster the next generation of solar technologies and strengthen the US position in the field, more than $145 million will be allocated for 69 projects in 24 states in a variety of disciplines as part of DOE’s SunShot Initiative. Funded through the department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, DOE hopes the projects will accelerate R&D to increase efficiency, lower costs, advance cutting-edge technologies, as well as improve materials, manufacturing processes and supply chains for a wide range of photovoltaic cells and components of solar energy systems.
Konica Minolta Sensing Americas (KMSA) initially launched their Technology Test Drive Program this past July at InterSolar North America in San Francisco with the company recently advising that the program is available for all US-based commercial and R&D solar companies. The program originally sought to give educational institutions equipment like solar spectroradiometers for a one week evaluation period so that new PV industry technology could be tested by leading researchers in the industry.
American researchers from the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with German researchers aiming to make new developments in solar cells and solar fuel production. The MOU will also see the two teams working to improve the performance of concentrating solar thermal power systems.
