DOE to Invest $21 Million Plus for Next Generation Solar Energy Projects

November 16, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

Tools for Engineers IHS sells standards collections and regulatory information for the oil & gas, petrochemical and utilities industries. For more information and a price quote, please complete the form below. API Collections ASME BPVC ASTM Collections CyberRegs - Compliance library IHS Standards Expert - Standards DB IEEE Collections NEMA Collections AWS D1.1 Welding Code First Name: Last Name: Email address:

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) will invest $21.7 million in next generation photovoltaic (PV) technology to help accelerate the widespread use of advanced solar power.

The 25 projects that the DOE selected as part of the Funding Opportunity Announcement, Next Generation Photovoltaic Devices & Processes are an integral part of the Solar America Initiative, which aims to diversify U.S. energy resources by spurring widespread commercialization and deployment of clean solar energy technologies, which will help to provide long-term economic, environmental and security benefits to the nation, said the DOE.

According to the DOE, projects selected represent an important early-stage investment from the DOE in advanced PV (solar electricity) technologies, which will help drive U.S. industry competitiveness.

These solar technologies have the potential to produce electricity at costs well below the current costs of grid-supplied electricity, said the DOE.

The device and manufacturing process research, which will be used by the selected projects, is expected to produce prototype cells and/or processes by 2015, with the potential for full commercialization shortly thereafter.

The 25 projects will be implemented at 15 universities and six companies; each award averages $900,000 from the DOE over three years (Fiscal Years 2008 Ð 2010).

The DOE will provide up to $21.7 million in funding, subject to final project negotiations and Congressional appropriations. With cost-sharing, the total investment in research will be up to $30.3 million.

The following projects were selected for negotiation of three-year project awards:

Arizona State University (ASU)
This project will seek to increase efficiency levels to 20% by developing new materials to improve tandem thin film solar cells.

ASU was selected for another project, in which researchers will demonstrate the fundamental viability of replacing expensive materials used in solar cells with less costly alternatives.

California Institute of Technology
This project will seek to enhance solar absorption using plasmons to improve the performance of PV cells.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
This project will seek to boost the performance of conventional solar cells through the addition of a new layer tuned to use a previously wasted portion of the sun's energy.

MIT was selected for another project, in which researchers will explore a silicon wafer-making technology that will set new standards of electronic quality and low cost.

Mayaterials Inc.
This project will seek to derive solar grade silicon from agricultural by-products.

Pennsylvania State University (PSU)
This project will seek to apply lessons learned from success with lithium ion batteries to develop dye-based sensitized solar cells with improved electrodes and electrolytes.

PSU was also selected for a second project, in which researchers will create PV devices from nanowires grown on inexpensive substrates like glass.

Rochester Institute of Technology
This project will develop PV cells for solar concentrator applications using high efficiency nanostructures.

Solasta Inc.
Solasta will seek to develop high-efficiency solar power by separating the path traveled by light from the path traveled by electrons using nanostructures.

Solexant Inc.
Solexant will seek to dramatically improve photovoltaics through inexpensive inorganic PV cell that harvest more than the conventional limit of maximum power efficiency.

Soltaix Inc.
Soltaix will seek to demonstrate and optimize an ultra-high-efficiency, thin-film, crystalline solar cell for cost-effective, grid-connected electricity.

Stanford University
Stanford will use nanowire networks or meshes to create electrodes for high-efficiency, low-cost solution-processed photovoltaics.

Stanford was also selected for a project in which researchers will produce advanced, higher-efficiency thin-film solar cells from nanowires made of Copper Indium Gallium Di-Selenide (CIGS).

University of California, Davis (UCD)
UCD will develop organic photovoltaics, prepared with sequential solution processing, to produce multiple-layer polymer films.

University of California, San Diego
This project will seek to produce high-efficiency photovoltaics that combine plasmonics and semiconductor nanostructures.

University of Colorado, Boulder
Using dye molecules to produce multiple electrons from one photon of light, researchers for this project will demonstrate an ultra-high efficiency, low-cost solar cell.

University of Delaware
The project will use laser processing to control defects and improve PV cell performance to develop a highly efficient wide bandgap in thin films, which is necessary for low-cost polycrystalline tandem devices.

University of Florida
This project will seek to create solution processible, low-cost tandem photovoltaics from inorganic nanorods (aligned for efficient energy collection) surrounded by organic polymers.

University of Illinois
This project will seek a low-cost concentrator PV from automated printing and the interconnection of a large number of microcells with built-in optics.

University of Michigan
This project will seek to demonstrate effective tandem crystalline organic photovoltaic cells.

University of South Florida
University of South Florida will demonstrate a flexible configuration with a high throughput process for transforming the standard process/product design of cadmium telluride (CdTe) cells and modules.

University of Washington
This project will seek to use interfacial engineering to make highly efficient polymer-based photovoltaic devices with organic/inorganic nanostructures; it also seeks to produce improved performance multilayer, solution processible organic tandem cells with additional enhancements due to interfacial engineering at the electrode.

Voxtel Inc.
Voxtel will seek to go beyond conventional limits in power production in composite nanocrystal photovoltaic devices.

Wakonda Technologies
Wakonda Technologies will seek to apply low-cost conventional thin film manufacturing techniques to the production of large-area, high-efficiency multi-junction PV.

To read more on the Solar America Initiative and the Funding Opportunity Announcement, Next Generation Photovoltaic Devices & Processes visit the DOE Energy Efficiency and Renewable energy web site.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).