Looking Back at Recent PV Innovations

Energy. The lifeblood of modern civilization. Finding clean sources of it is very high on
the green movement's priority list, and one very promising field is solar photovoltaics
(PV). We, at TreeHugger, have been covering the field for a while now, and we think it's
time to look in the rearview mirror at some of the top PV solar innovations from our
archives.

Thin Film Solar Record: 19.9% Efficiency

A shortage of silicon in the past few years and the demand for thin and flexible panels
has helped increase the focus on thin film solar recently, and a lot of progress is being
made. The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created thin film
solar panels that are very close to competing with their more traditional silicon-based
cousins. "The copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) thin-film solar cell recently
reached 19.9 percent efficiency in testing at the lab, setting a new world record."

CoolEarth Inflatable Solar Balloons

Solar photovoltaic cells are still relatively expensive, so many companies are trying to
find ways to reduce the PV surface area that they use. One way to do that is to use
concentrators to direct more sunlight to smaller (but usually more efficient) solar panels.
But even if you do that, you still have high costs for support materials and the
concentrators themselves.
That's the problems that CoolEarth is trying to solve with its inflatable solar
collectors. The balloons themselves are said to be 400 times cheaper than a
concentrator of the same size made of polished aluminum, and they can be mounted on
wires, reducing costs further. Maintenance is also easier: You can repair them with tape,
and replace one unit in about 15 minutes. Read on for more details and a
promo video.

Sunrgi Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics: Solar

Power Competitive With Fossil Fuels?
Sunrgi recently made an impressive claim: They say that their system will soon be able
to "produce electricity at a wholesale cost of 5 cents per kWh (kilowatt hour)." (!) They
do it by concentrating the Sun's light close to 2,000 times (!!!) into extremely efficient
solar photovoltaic cells. Part of Sunrgi's patent-pending technology has to do with the
cooling of the solar cells, dual-axis sun tracking, and the way the whole system is
optimized for mass-production. Find out more about it in our post about Sunrgi's
concentrated solar power.

'Hairy' Thin Film Solar Panels Using Nanowires

We often hear about new exotic materials and strange shapes, but this could be
theweirdest announcement yet: Researchers at McMaster University (coolest name
ever) have succeeded in 'growing' light-absorbing nanowires made of high-performance
photovoltaic materials on carbon-nanotube fabric. In other words, hairy solar panels.

The aim is to produce flexible, affordable solar cells that, within five years, will achieve a
conversion efficiency of 20%. Longer term, it's theoretically possible to achieve 40%
efficiency!

Moth Eyes Biomimicry for Solar Panels

Silicon is reflective, so a lot of light that could be turned into electricity is bounced back
and lost. Anti-reflective coating is used, but its effectiveness is limited and it has
downsides too. So while looking for a solution, researchers noticed that moths have
very non-reflective eyes ("most likely an evolutionary defense against nocturnal
predators"). The moth-eye process creates panels that reflect less than 2% of light.
That's a vast improvement over the 35 to 40% reflection rate seen without the antireflection coating layers.

Solaria: 90% of the Power with 50% of the Silicon

Solaria's solar cells produce about 90% of a conventional solar panel's power, while
using half as much silicon, thus reducing costs. "Ordinarily, the silicon in a solar panel
spans its surface, collecting light from as much area as possible. But Solaria slices the
silicon into thin strips and spaces them apart so that they only account for about half the
panel's area. A clear molded plastic cover collects light from the entire panel and funnels
it to the strips of silicon." For more information, including images, see our post about
Solaria's solar panels.

1366 Technologies: Bringing Solar Power Closer to

$1/Watt
These guys are really clever. 1366 Technologies, a company named after the solar
constant (there are 1366 watts of solar radiation hitting each square meter of the Earth
on average) is working on improving multi-crystalline silicon solar panels. Three different
innovations allowed them to make their prototype 27% more efficient than conventional
multi-crystalline silicon solar cells, bringing its total efficiency to 19.5%, about the same
as single-crystal silicon solar cells (which are more expensive). For more details on
these three innovations, see our post about 1366 Technologies' solar panels.

Day4 Energy's Innovation: 25% Cheaper Solar Panels

Beating solar PV efficiency records in the lab is great but in the short-term, what matters
most is what makes it to market. That's why Day4 Energy's recent innovation is so
interesting: It should cut the cost of panels by 25% by increasing the efficiency of their
cells to 17-18%, and the new panels should be on the market within 18 months. For
more details on how they do it, see our post on Day4 Energy's solar panels.

Nanosolar: Driving Down Costs by 'Printing' Solar

Panels
Nanosolar is a company based in Palo Alto, California, which uses an innovative
technique to produce a kind of "solar film". To make the film, Nanosolar prints CIGS
(copper-indium-gallium-selenium) onto a thin polymer using machines that look like

printing presses. There is no costly silicon involved in the process, and, ultimately, a
solar cell from Nanosolar will cost about one-fifth to one-tenth the cost of a standard
silicon solar panel. Nanosolar has raised a lot of money, including from Sergey Brin
and Larry Page, and from France's EDF with investments of $50 million, and they
are now ramping production as fast as possible. See more in our post about
Nanosolar and in the video below.

General Electric: Printing OLEDs and Solar Panels

Not strictly a solar panel innovation, GE's process to print out rolls of OLEDs could also
be applied to solar panels, according to the company. This could help reduce costs and
simplify manufacturing processes. Read more about it in our post about GE's "major
milestone": printing organic LEDs like paper, also applicable to solar panels.

Converting Infrared Light to Electricity

By adding titanium and vanadium into the semiconducting material of a solar panel, you
can alter it so that it can use the infrared spectrum of light as well as the visible.
Because of this, such solar panels have a theoretical absorption limit of 63%, which
compares to about 40% for ordinary solar cells. Read more about it in our post about
using the infrared spectrum in solar panels.

First Solar's Cadmium Telluride Solar Panels

Some experts are speculating that First Solar might beat over 80 competitors to achieve
manufacturing costs low enough to market solar panels at less than $1 per Watt, the
target considered necessary for solar to compete with coal-burning electricity on the
grid. Read more about it in our post about First Solar's Cadmium Telluride solar
panels.

AVA Solar: Cadmium Telluride Thin Film at $1/Watt

Another company working on cadmium telluride thin film is AVA Solar. They claim the
panels will cost about $1/watt to manufacture, and will cost customers about $2/watt,

which is about half what regular panels cost these days. Read more in our post about
AVA Solar's Cadmium Telluride solar panels.

Japan Hopes to Have Solar Power Station in Space by

2030
f and when this project is completed, it is envisioned that it will have to be physically
massive, let alone costly: the orbiting solar portion could stretch for kilometers and
weight 10,000 tonnes; the laser portion could be as long as 10 kilometers; the groundbased receiving unit could be up to two kilometers long. Read more in our post about
Japan's plans for a solar power station in space.

EMCORE Solar Cell Sets Efficiency Record

Developed in conjunction with the National Energy Research Laboratory and the US Air
Force Research Laboratory, EMCORE's Inverted Metamorphic Multi-Junction Solar Cell
Technology (IMM) has set a world record for in-orbit conversion efficiency of 33%. When
adapted to use in the company's terrestrial-based concentrator photovoltaic systems
(CPV), efficiencies between 42-45% (!) are expected to be achieved. Read more in our
post about EMCORE solar panels.