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Topic Name: Durham University Experts Lead a Team of Scientists into UK Research Project for Cheaper Solar Energy
Category: Solar cells
Research persons: Professor Ken Durose
Location: Durham University, United Kingdom
Details
A national team of scientists led by experts at Durham
University are embarking on one of the UK’s largest ever research projects
into photovoltaic (PV) solar energy.
The £6.3million PV-21 programme will focus on making thin-film light
absorbing cells for solar panels from sustainable and affordable materials.
The four-year project, which begins in April (2008), is being funded by the Engineering
and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) under the SUPERGEN
initiative.
Eight UK universities, led by Durham and including Bangor, Bath, Cranfield,
Edinburgh, Imperial College London, Northumbria and Southampton, are involved in
the project.
They will work together with nine industrial partners towards a “medium to
long-term goal” of making solar energy more competitive and sustainable,
particularly in light of the recent rise in fossil fuel prices.
At present solar cells – used to convert light energy into electricity -
are made from key components such as the rare and expensive metal indium which
costs approximately £320 ($660) per kilogram.
To cut costs in solar cell production the research team will work to reduce
the thickness of the cells.
Making a solar semiconductor thinner by one millionth of a metre in solar
cells generating one gigawatt of power could save 50 tonnes of material.
Researchers will also experiment with sustainable low-cost materials which
could be used in the manufacturing of solar cells and on the use of nanotechnology
and dyes on ultra-thin silicon to capture increased amounts of energy from the
sun’s rays.
Principal investigator Professor
Ken Durose, in the Department of Physics, at Durham University, said:
“With the rapid increase in fossil fuel prices and the recent Government
announcement about investment in nuclear power it is even more important that we
look at long-term future energy generation from solar power.
“At present you would need tens of tonnes of very rare and expensive
materials for large scale production of solar cells to produce sizeable amounts
of power.
“Some of the materials currently used may not be sustainable in 20 years
time which is why we have to conduct research into alternative materials that
are cheaper to buy and more sustainable.
“We are also leading the way in making ultra-thin solar cells that need
less material.
“Our medium to long-term goal is to make a major contribution to achieving
competitive photovoltaic solar energy, which we hope will lead to an uptake in
the use of solar power.”
The latest funding follows an initial four-year research project by PV-21
focusing on the development of thin-layer PV cells using compound semiconductors
based on the cadmium telluride and chalcopyrite systems.
This work will form the basis for testing new ideas over the next four years.
Chris Pywell, Head of Strategic Economic Change at regional development
agency One NorthEast, said: “This project will add substantially to the
position of North East England which is already at the forefront of photovoltaic
energy research.
“This leading position presents a great opportunity to the region as the
world addresses climate
change. As well as the strengths of Durham and Northumbria
universities that are demonstrated by this success, we have the PV development
facilities at NaREC, the new PETEC facilities at NETPark, and great businesses
such as ROMAG.
“The Agency, Durham University and our other partners are committed to
building on this new project and our many other successes to ensure the region
leads the UK in renewable energy.”
Note for Solar energy
Solar energy is energy from the Sun. This energy drives the climate and weather and supports virtually all life on Earth. Heat and light from the sun, sexy along with solar-based resources such as wind and wave power, hydroelectricity and biomass, account for most of the available flow of renewable energy. Solar energy technologies harness the sun's energy for practical ends. These technologies date from the time of the early Greeks, Native Americans and Chinese, who warmed their buildings by orienting them toward the sun. Modern solar technologies provide heating, lighting, electricity and even
flight.
Solar power is used synonymously with solar energy or more specifically to refer to the conversion of sunlight into electricity. This can be done either through the photovoltaic effect or by heating a transfer fluid to produce steam to run a generator.
Solar photovoltaics provide 0.04% of the world's energy usage.
Note for Photovoltaics
Photovoltaics, or PV for short, is a solar power technology that uses solar cells or solar photovoltaic arrays to convert light from the sun directly into electricity. Photovoltaics is also the field of study relating to this technology and there are many research institutes devoted to work on
photovoltaics. The manufacture of photovoltaic cells has expanded dramatically in recent
years. Photovoltaic production has been doubling every two years, increasing by an average of 48 percent each year since 2002, making it the world’s fastest-growing energy technology. At the end of 2007, according to preliminary data, cumulative global production was 12,400
megawatts. Roughly 90% of this generating capacity consists of grid-tied electrical systems. Such installations may be ground-mounted (and sometimes integrated with farming and
grazing) or building integrated. Financial incentives, such as preferential feed-in tariffs for solar-generated electricity and net metering, have supported solar PV installations in many countries including Germany, Japan, and the United
States.
Solar photovoltaics provided 0.04% of the world's Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) for the year 2004, at a rate of growth to reach 0.08% by the end of 2006.
Note for Solar Cell
A solar cell or photovoltaic cell is a device that converts light energy into electrical energy by the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaics is the field of technology and research related to the application of solar cells as solar energy. Sometimes the term solar cell is reserved for devices intended specifically to capture energy from sunlight, while the term photovoltaic cell is used when the source is unspecified.
A solar cell fulfills only two functions: photogeneration of charge carriers (electrons and holes) in a light-absorbing material, and separation of the charge carriers to a conductive contact that will transmit the electricity (simply put, carrying electrons off through a metal contact into a wire or other circuit).
Solar cells have many applications. Individual cells are used for powering small devices such as electronic calculators. Assemblies of cells are used to make solar modules, which may in turn be linked in photovoltaic arrays. These generate a form of renewable electricity, particularly useful in situations where electrical power from the grid is unavailable such as in remote area power systems, Earth-orbiting satellites and space probes, remote radiotelephones and water pumping applications. Photovoltaic electricity is also increasingly deployed in grid-tied electrical systems.
Note for Fossil Fuel
Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fossil source fuels, this is, hydrocarbons found within the top layer of the earth’s crust.
They range from very volatile materials with low carbon:hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquid petroleum to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields, alone, associated with oil, or in the form of methane clathrates. It is generally accepted that they formed from the fossilized remains of dead plants and
animals by exposure to heat and pressure in the Earth's crust over hundreds of millions of
years. This is known as the biogenic theory and was first introduced by Mikhail Lomonosov in 1757. There is an opposing theory that the more volatile hydrocarbons, especially natural gas, are formed by abiogenic processes, that is no living material was involved in their formation.
Note for Cadmium telluride
Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is a crystalline compound formed from cadmium and tellurium with a zinc blende (cubic) crystal structure (space group F43m). In the bulk crystalline form it is a direct bandgap semiconductor. CdTe is also a strong solar cell material. It is usually sandwiched with cadmium sulfide to form a pn junction photovoltaic solar cell.
CdTe is a useful material for solar cells (photovoltaics). It is cheaper than silicon, especially in thin-film solar cell technology, but not as efficient. CdTe can be alloyed with mercury to make a versatile infrared detector material (HgCdTe). CdTe alloyed with a small amount of zinc makes an excellent solid-state x-ray and gamma ray detector (CdZnTe).
CdTe is used as an infrared optical material for optical windows and lenses but it has small application and is limited by its toxicity such that few optical houses will consider working with it. An early form of CdTe for IR use was marketed under the trademarked name of Irtran-6 but this is obsolete.
Note for Chalcopyrite
Chalcopyrite is a copper iron sulfide mineral that crystallizes in the tetragonal system. It has the chemical composition CuFeS2.
It has a brassy to golden yellow color and a hardness of 3.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale. Its streak is diagnostic as green tinged black.
On exposure to air, chalcopyrite oxidises to a variety of oxides, hydroxides and sulfates. Associated copper minerals include the sulfides bornite (Cu5FeS4), chalcocite (Cu2S), covellite (CuS), digenite (Cu9S5); carbonates such as malachite and azurite, and rarely oxides such as cuprite (Cu2O). Chalcopyrite is rarely found in association with native copper.
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