U.S. Department of Energy to Invest up to $13.7 Million for Breakthrough Solar Energy Projects

11 Projects selected from universities across the country
WASHINGTON, DC - The US Department of Energy (DOE) today announced that DOE will invest up to $ 13.7 million, over three years (Fiscal Years 2008 - 2010), for 11 university-led projects that will focus on developing advanced solar photovoltaic (PV ) technology manufacturing processes and products. These projects are integral to President Bush's Solar America Initiative, which aims to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015. Increasing the use of solar energy is also critical to diversifying our nation's energy sources in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on foreign oil. Combined with a minimum university and industry cost share of 20%, up to $ 17.4 million will be invested in these projects.
"Harnessing the natural and abundant power of the sun and more cost-effectively converting it into energy has enormous potential to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide greater stability in electricity costs," DOE Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Alexander Karsner said. "These projects will not only bolster innovation in photovoltaic technology, but they will help meet the President's goal of making clean and renewable solar power commercially viable by 2015."
Universities selected for led street light with solar panel will leverage fundamental understanding of materials and PV devices to help industry partners advance manufacturing processes and products. These projects have the potential to significantly reduce the cost of electricity produced by PV from current levels of $ 0.18-$ 0.23 per Kilowatt hour ( kWh) to $ 0.05 - $ 0.10 per kWh by 2015 - a price that is competitive in markets nationwide Each university will work closely with an industry partner to ensure the projects retain a commercialization focus and that results are quickly transitioned into market ready-products and manufacturing. processes. Additionally, students will be exposed to diverse PV-related commercialization efforts, enhancing workforce development in an effort to increase competitiveness and retain qualified scientists in the growing domestic PV research and development industry.
Photovoltaic-based solar cells convert sunlight directly into electricity, and are made of semiconductor materials similar to those used in computer chips. When sunlight is absorbed by these materials, the solar energy knocks electrons loose from their atoms, allowing the electrons to flow through the material to produce electricity. The process of converting light to electricity is called the photovoltaic effect.
Projects were selected in response to DOE's June 20, 2007, Funding Opportunity Announcement - University Photovoltaic Process and Product Development Support -. Which seeks to strengthen university involvement in the rapidly growing PV industry Negotiations between selected applicants and DOE will begin immediately to determine final project . plans and funding levels Funding is subject to appropriations from Congress Selected projects include.:
Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) with SolFocus and Soliant Energy:. Reliability Evaluation of Concentrator Photovoltaics per IEC Qualification Specifications The recent boom in concentrating PVs has created a significant backlog of products waiting to undergo IEC product testing This project will focus on reducing. bottlenecks of the qualification test such as environmental chamber testing while enhancing scheduling and coordination with industry to significantly increase testing throughput and efficiency. DOE will provide up to $ 625,304 for this approximately $ 800,000 project.
California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA) with Spectrolab:. 100 millimeter (mm) Engineered InP on Si Laminate Substrates for InP based Multijunction Solar Cells Indium Phosphide (InP) is a very desirable substrate to form multijunction solar cells upon but is cost prohibitive even for high performance cells. This project aims to reduce InP layer thickness by a factor of ten by bonding a thin layer of InP to an inexpensive silicon laminate substrate enabling a cost-effective, scaleable InP-based multijunction cell process. In turn, this will open a new design space for high efficiency multijunction solar cells. DOE will provide up to $ 837,000 for this approximately $ 1 million project.

North Carolina State University (Raleigh, NC) with Spectrolab: Tunable Narrow Bandgap Absorbers for Ultra High Efficiency Multijunction Solar Cells Conversion efficiency of multijunction cells can be increased by balancing each layer's responsiveness to the sun's broad spectrum and by matching the current produced by each. layer. This project will pursue both of these improvements by developing and optimizing a 1-1.5 electron volt, graded strain subcell layer and then integrating this layer into Spectrolab's triple junction stack to produce a four-junction solar cell. This project is targeting a world record efficiency of 45%. DOE will provide up to $ 1,147,468 for this approximately $ 1.4 million project.
Pennsylvania State University (University Park, PA) with Honeywell:. Organic Semiconductor Heterojunction Solar Cells for Efficient, Low-Cost, Large Area Scalable Solar Energy Conversion Organic solar cells hold promise to drastically lower costs but currently have low conversion efficiencies due to drawbacks in the structure of the junction interface. This project will focus on using highly ordered, high-surface area titanium dioxide nanotube arrays in combination with organic semiconductors to fabricate low-cost solar cells with efficiencies of greater than 7%. DOE will provide up to $ 1,231,843 for this approximately $ 1.5 million project.
University of Delaware Institute of Energy Conversion (Newark, DE) with Dow Corning:. Development of a Low-Cost Insulated Foil Substrate for CIGS Photovoltaics Currently, direct formation of flexible Copper Indium Gallium Selenium (CIGS) modules is limited by the lack of an inexpensive substrate capable of withstanding the high processing temperatures required to produce quality films. This project will address this limitation by targeting development of a low-cost stainless steel flexible substrate coated with silicone-based resin dielectric and module processes applicable across a variety of roll- to-roll CIGS manufacturing techniques. led street light with solar panel will target devices based on this substrate with efficiencies greater than 12%. DOE will provide up to $ 1,478,331 for this approximately $ 1.85 million project.
University of Delaware (Newark, DE) with SunPower:.. High Efficiency Back Contact Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells This project will deposit amorphous silicon (a-Si) films on crystalline cells to enhance the electrical properties and enable low-temperature processing Metal contacts will be moved to the back of the cell to increase the amount of light entering the cell and increase conversion efficiencies beyond 26%. DOE will provide up to $ 1,494,736 for this approximately $ 1.9 million project.
. University of Florida (Gainesville FL) with Global Solar Energy Inc, International Solar Electric Technology Inc, Nanosolar Inc, and Solyndra Inc:... Routes for Rapid Synthesis of CIGS Absorbers This project will develop predictive models that quantitatively describe the formation of CIGS films under different processing conditions. These models can be used to develop optimal processing recipes which will reduce processing time and identify scaling issues for commercial manufacturing. The project is targeting a CIGS synthesis time of less than two minutes. DOE will provide up to $ 599,556 for this approximately $ 800,000 project.

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