Opportunities in Solar Technology

Opportunities in Solar Technology
(Abhishek Uppal)

Solar technology harnesses solar energy to create electricity and heat. Although we count on the sun for all of our energy, solar energy conventionally refers to two core technology groups:

Solar Photovoltaic (PV): Where a solar cell is used to convert light into electric current using the photoelectric effect. Photons from sunlight hit the solar panel, knocking electrons loose, which flow through the multi-layered cell creating electricity.

Solar thermal Solar thermal breaks down into two broad sub-categories:

Solar thermal power, where sunlight is used to heat water to low or medium temperatures. This technology is used to heat pools, for cooking, or to desalinate or disinfect water;
Concentrated solar power (CSP), where sunlight is used to boil water, producing steam that drives turbines.

The solar sector is growing rapidly. Lux Research, predicts that the market will grow to $100 billion by 2013.

Early research/proof of concept: The estimated 2013 market size for organic and Grätzel PV is $18.4 million, up from $2.42 million in 2008. Grätzel PV is a technology where light is absorbed by organic dye molecules, which transfer electrons to titanium dioxide nano-particles. Research is currently being conducted on the ideal dyes to use, but ruthenium polypyridine is emerging as the leading dye. In the lab, efficiencies of 11% have been achieved, but significant improvements over the early pilot efficiencies of 2.5% are needed before this can move into later stages of development.

Lab testing: The estimated 2013 market size for thin-film solar is $25.8 billion, up from $7.13 billion in 2008. While thin-film technologies have been in development since the 1970s, most are still nascent, with significant room for efficiency improvements. Amorphous silicon has made advances in repeatability, but cell efficiency is still low, around 5-6%, compared to nearly 20% for polysilicon. Next-generation (“micromorph”) amorphous silicon holds much promise, improving efficiency to 8-8.5%, but significant room for improvement remains.

Lab testing: The estimated 2013 market size for multi-junction PV is $1.20 billion, up from $341 million in 2008. Multi-junction PV cells are generally constructed with a layer of gallium arsenide and gallium indium phosphide on top of a germanium substrate. Multi-junction PV cells have achieved very high efficiencies (43% in lab testing and 37% in commercial applications), but they remain expensive, and will require significant cost reduction before they can be deployed commercially at scale.

Commercial with refinements needed: The most mature thin-film technologies have been developed by First Solar. Using cadmium telluride semi-conductors, First Solar has brought costs down to $1.12/Watt. While First Solar’s cell efficiency of 10.6% is respectable for thin-film technology, there is still significant room for improvement in the next few years.

Commercial: The estimated 2013 market size for crystalline silicon PV is $64.1 billion, up from $33.4 billion in 2008. There are a number of sub-technologies within crystalline silicon PV, including mono-crystalline modules and polycrystalline modules. While manufacturers continue to improve efficiency and bring down costs, this opportunity is at commercial scale today.

Commercial: The estimated 2013 market size for solar thermal is $9.26 billion, up from $1.10 billion in 2008. There are a variety of sub-technologies within solar thermal, which are distinguished by how the solar heat is concentrated. Parabolic mirrors, Fresnel mirrors and heliostat mirrors are all used to concentrate solar energy onto a receiver, warming a working fluid that, in turn, boils water and drives turbines. The technology is commercial and scalable today.

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Top 3 Solar Chargers

    Solar battery chargers are about more than just saving energy, they are also very convenient and are cutting edge technology. Which are The Best Solar Chargers? Here introduce the top 3 solar chargers.

    Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger Solio, the Universal “Hybrid” Charger is powerful enough to charge all of your handheld electronic products at home or on the move, anywhere under the sun. Solio is a Hybrid because it can accept power from either the wall socket or Sun storing this energy within Solio’s internal rechargeable battery. When fully charged Solio can store enough power to charge a typical cell phone or an iPod Nano at least two times. With this solar charger you can charge: Cell Phones, iPod / MP3 players, Smart Phones / PDA’s, Game Players, GPS’s and Digital Camera’s. Solio will charge your device at the same rate as your conventional charger. Charging Solio’s internal battery takes 8-10 hours of direct sunlight. When charging a cell phone directly from the sun, 60 minutes of sunlight will provide approximately 25 minutes of talk time and ten hours of standby time. If you run out of sun but have a conventional power source nearby you can use the included wall adapter, Solio will fully charge in approximately 4 hours.

     The Freeloader 8.0 solar charger is especially useful for the iPod, which it can power for 18 additional hours or a PDA, which it can power for 22 hours. The solar charger comes in cool silver or hot pink plus USB and miniUSB adapters as well as nine other types including Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia and LG phones. The Freeloader 8.0 has two especially sensitive foldaway solar panels that can charge your devices even on cloudy days and it will even recharge its own batteries at the same time it charges peripheral devices. The Freeloader also has the option for users to buy an enlarged solar panel, called the Supercharger, which reduces recharge time by half.

     SRESKY solar battery charger SBC-06. It will provide free and clean solar power to charge your mobile phone. With it’s attachable suction pads you can stick it to a smooth surface or a window. When you require a reliable backup power supply in remote places or simply want the convenience of being able to recharge your mobile anywhere, this is the unit you will turn to. Supplied with 4 mobile phone adapters for most models of  Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony-Ericsson. The internal battery can also be charged from a PC’s USB port using the supplied cable. It has three voltage levels to meet different charging requirements, most mobile phones use 5.0 volts, cameras and other portables may require the 5.5V and 9.5 volt outputs, always verify the output voltage on your AC charger first.

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A Brighter Future With New Solar Panel Designs

The use of solar panels in residences has proved to be the best and most cost-efficient alternative for utility power. However, the use of solar power has yet to reach its full potential in the residential market.

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The use of solar panels in residences has proved to be the best and most cost-efficient alternative for utility power. However, the use of solar power has yet to reach its full potential in the residential market. Recent advances in technology can possibly change this, as the industry has seen opportunities to create solar panels with new designs, in terms of both aesthetics and functionality.

Aesthetically-pleasing designs

Solar power has only recently been given a great deal of attention. As a result, residential homes built 10, 20, or 30 years ago were not constructed in such a way that solar panels could be later added if the resident family decides to install some.

Previously, solar panels were very thick and had to be mounted with out-of-place brackets on top of existing roofs. Fortunately, the solar panel manufacturer industry has recently realized that poor aesthetics is one of the main reasons why solar power has not completely made its way into the residential market.

New panels are hardly noticeable. The tiles are seamlessly integrated into the existing roofs of residential homes, which achieve a very elegant look. The rise in number of solar installations in the U.S. rose by an amazing 45% in 2007 is widely attributed to the creation of more aesthetically-pleasing panel designs.

There are a number of companies that have already come up with more aesthetically-pleasing solar panel designs. The Sun Power Corporation, for example, the leading U.S. solar panel manufacturer, has created some panels that are compatible with Mediterranean-styled clay tiles and flat roof tiles. Lumeta, another manufacturer, has design panels that are awaiting industry certification.

The panels made by both Sun Power and Lumeta are made from silicon. The market will soon see thinner panels made of copper indium gallium selenide (CIGS). As of now, however, such panels are less efficient than the currently existing silicon ones. Sometime in the near future, these thin-film panels are expected to dominate residential use by becoming a standard part of the building process.

Highly functional designs

One example of a new, more functional solar panel design is that recently designed by the Georgia Tech Research Institute. This innovative design allows the panels to absorb more sunlight, enabling them to produce up to 60 times more current. This new design makes use of nano-towers that add significant surface area to the solar panels, giving the particles of light from the sun more chances to strike the part of the cell that produces electricity.

However, these new panels still have a couple of kinks yet to be worked out. These new panel designs have too much resistance in their cells, resulting in an inability to generate the kind of electricity needed.

Jud Ready, senior research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute and creator of this new solar panel design, is determined to work on the design and modify its features to resolve the difficulties within it. The US Air Force is currently partially sponsoring the research in high hopes that these smaller and more efficient solar panels will replace old, bulky ones and can eventually be used to power satellites and spacecrafts in the future.

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Residential Solar Power, Thin Film Solar Cells, and a History of Silicon Sourcing (part 7)

In this article, we will document the three most common types of solar cells and how this technology has proven itself for decades. We’ll also give a brief history of silicon sourcing and explain why we were set for rapid growth back int the 90s and now we are again. Finally, we’ll make note of new solar technologies that will change the solar industry as we know it (i.e. thin film and nano-solar). All of these factors are great news for homeowners wishing to upgrade to solar generated electricity.

The following topics will be explained in varying levels of detail; how a solar cell converts sunlight energy via the use of different types of silicon, the use of silicon and where it comes from, and a little about the history of silicon sourcing over the past 18 years.

The Future Solar Panel and Home Solar Manufacturing

As the residential solar power industry has matured and showed a steady growth of about 40 percent a year, the silicon industry is now responding with new production and caches of raw materials. Many silicon refineries and new silicon sourcing companies are getting the funding and moving towards rapid production in the next dozen or so months. There are plans and announcements by several companies such as GE, BP, and others about launching new facilities that produce silicon at a fraction of the cost we may be experiencing today. This is all exciting news for home solar power enthusiasts and for those wishing to upgrade to residential solar generated electricity.

The silicon industry is or has been slow to increase overall manufacturing capabilities because of the large growth during the early 1990s that eventually when stale. The extreme growth expectations were hyped and many industry experts expected much expansion in the early 1990s. This just did not happen 18 years ago. Fortunately, we are now experience much more accepting market, social expectations of our movement to renewable technologies, and governmental support to make the switch to home solar power.

In the past, the solar silicon refining industry made solar panel manufacturers sign long-term contracts at extremely high prices to secure any silicon at all. For example, a solar manufacturing plant had to slow production to a trickle because of a lack of silicon. The economics have now changed since 2006 making massive silicon contracts viable at better prices.

Nano-Solar and Thin Film Solar Cells: It’s the Future

We are now at the dawn of a home solar energy revolution. The solar power manufacturers invented and are beginning to manufacture new solar modules that do not use silicon at all. There are alternative materials using nano-technology that are and will continue to radically change the consumption and production of solar generated electricity.

Often the newest technologies, like thin film or nano-solar cells, are somewhat experimental with limited or no actual field testing. This is not true for many of the silicon based solar panels on the market today. Homeowners, right now, have the opportunity to rent residential solar energy systems and side step the expensive system purchase by renting. Because there are now large sources of silicon, homeowners now have the choice to upgrade to solar on a large scale across many markets in the United States that were once thought too expensive to install residential solar systems.

Sourcing of Silicon for Home Solar Energy Systems

The material used to make most solar cells today is the abundant element called silicon. One might think of this in a common sense as sand which when melted down and added to various other elements makes up anything from computer chips to beer bottles. Availability of solar grade silicon has been one of the limiting factors in the solar module manufacturing industry for the past several years.

The story goes something like this. Solar grade silicon is produced in large scale, expensive to build processing facilities. “Well, isn’t it just sand?” One might ask. Of course, sand is basically silicon, but with a lot of impurities. Solar grade silicon is highly refined silicon that is purified through gasification and then “doped” with precise impurities to create free electrons, which is explained in following articles.

There are basically 3 types of silicon going into current solar energy systems being installed today;

1. Silicon Crystals: A silicon atom has a positively charged nucleus that is surrounded by negatively charged electrons. The critical thing about silicon is its structure. It has 4 electrons around its nucleus that allow for easy bonding to other elements and for its organization into crystal. Crystals conduct electricity much better than randomly organized elements. The 4 orbiting electrons can bond to the other electrons rotating around different elements. Each silicon atom connects with 4 more silicon atoms to construct a perfect pattern, a repeating crystalline structure.

2. Monocrystalline Silicon: The silicon is grown as large cylinders, which are sliced into wafers that become individual solar cells.

3. Polycrystalline Silicon: Liquid silicon is poured into thin containers and cooled.

Emerging Availability of Home Solar Energy System

Want to know how to rent a home solar electric system for your house? Well, it’s pretty simple. You basically pay a flat monthly rental fee just like you do today for a satellite dish or some other equipment you rent. The solar system rental rate is calculated based upon a number of factors; the average monthly energy consumption, the available utility sources and net-metering options, and the kWh rates in your market. A solar engineer will come to your home, look at your roof size, angle and shading to size the system for your location.

Going solar and using renewable, solar energy is getting simpler every day. The following article explained in some detail why the sourcing of silicon has slowed in the overall residential solar power market in the past. This is just not the case any longer and more options are emerging daily for the average homeowner to rethink solar power and renewable solar energies.

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Residential Solar Power: Module Solar Panel Designs

Solar Energy Systems Made of Component Parts

The module structure is designed to protect the solar cells from the environment. It consists of a number of layers to protect the circuit of solar PV cells and to make the module easy to install. The materials used in these layers determine the cost and durability of the modules.

The solar cells themselves and their circuits are totally wrapped in plastic. A shock resistant, shatter proof glass covers the solar PV cells and provides a clear, low absorption cover for the solar panel. It is also tempered for strength in order to reduce the effects of falling trees or hail. The multi-layered back sheet protects the plastic and cells from abrasions and prevents moisture from getting into the module.

An edge seal is applied to protect the edges of the glass from the infiltration of dirt, water, or other non-friendly substances. The metal frame is secured around the entire glass laminate. The all metal frame provides the structure and strength. It is the frame that is then bolted to the mounting system embedded directly into the roofing structure. Common Solar Module Design Types

There are three basic module solar designs. The first is the standard frame module that you may have experienced in the past. This design approach has been used for 30 years and usually involves an aluminum frame that allows the modules to be mounted onto a rail structure of some kind that is then directly attached to the roof. The modules are positioned above the roof surface, providing space for air to flow under the module, which helps cool the system and makes it work more efficiently.

At the same time, rain water, leaves, twigs, and other debris can also flow under the solar panels. The rail structure is attached to the roof by means of posts that are secured into the roof rafters with long lag screws. Roof mounted systems is a good fit for structures comprised of ceramic tiles and wood & asphalt shingles. The roof is sealed tightly after the posts are installed to prevent any chance of leaks.

Modified Metal Frame for a Ground Mount Module Design

This module design can also be mounted to a ground based frame structure. Such a structure can be built on any stable terrain, can be made of metal or wood, and can hold the modules at any tilt angle or azimuth orientation (note: see previous articles related to sun angles). The ground mount can also be a pole structure to cut down on foundation work to your home. It can be stationary (i.e. not have a small motor to constantly orientate the solar panel with the sun as it tracks across the sky) or it can use a small motor to track the sun throughout the day and year.

Residential Roof Integrated Solar Energy Modules

A second type of module design is one that allows the module to be integrated into residential roofing materials. Systems connecting directly to the roofing materials (i.e. replacing shingles or laying flat to the roofing boards) are called integrated solar modules. The module frame design is modified so that it has the same profile as neighboring flat concrete tiles. The modules are not mounted to a rail structure but are attached directly to the roof surface. This low profile mount allows the module to blend in to the look of the roof and avoid the retrofit appearance of standard mounted solar energy modules.

The emergence of this more attractive roof integrated product has encouraged many production home builders to incorporate solar systems into their projects. This type blends in with the roofing materials and is attached directly to the roof surface.

Types Integrated Solar PV Panels

One is the mono crystalline ridged frame design offered by some existing manufacturers. The integrated solar cells have better through put and are gaining in efficiency all of the time. They also incorporate well into existing roofing materials like shingles and tiles. These solar cells use the same crystalline silicon technology as standard modules today. This set up has more mounting frame with fewer solar cells connected in series. The can result in a solar system that is a little more expensive. Because the roof integrated systems mount directly to the roof, they do not have the air flow of standard modules therefore the solar cell temperature gets higher, limiting their efficiency.

The other integrated solar cell product offered, by UNISOLAR, is a flexible amorphous technology. This type of solar panel is referred as thin film, sheet solar, or nano-solar. It is made to blend in with an asphalt shingle roof. It is somewhat less efficient, tends to degrade more quickly, and may have a shorter workable live spam. The manufacturer claims that this module is better in high shade situations.

Solar Energy Options Hitting a Roofs Everywhere

It is encouraging to see new solar energy systems hitting the market with enhanced technology, better integration options, and less complexity. It will take time to work out the bugs with these cutting edge products. With new technology, we think comes (hopefully) a lower cost of ownership. This should enhance the use of home solar energy systems worldwide. It will be innovative financing options that allow homeowners to use the technology that will cause explosive growth.

New solar energy technologies are on the march. Exciting investments and technology proof of concepts are everywhere. It is hard to refute the good, faithful, and well-established silicon based solar cells. These systems have a life span of 30 years and have been in active use for decades. The only deterrent, until now, has been the high price for the systems. With the option to rental the entire solar energy system including the ongoing maintenance of the system for up to 25 years, the choices homeowners now have related to renewable energy adoption in their homes is very exciting.

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