news digest ♦ Solar
The EnerPlex charger was launched in early June. It was first publicly displayed at Intersolar conference in Europe last week. The product takes advantage of Ascent’s ultra-light, thin and flexible CIGS solar panels and enables iPhone users to provide supplementary charging of their iPhones with sunlight. The order is from Ascent’s exclusive distributor in Asia, TFG Radiant, which has advance orders from its channel partners for retail distribution throughout the Asia region. Ascent plans to fulfil the channel orders, supporting the early August retail launch of EnerPlex chargers in Asia. Ascent Solar’s President and CEO, Victor Lee, says “Initial response to the EnerPlex solar charger has been excellent.
We are very encouraged by the initial orders we have received from our distribution partners in Asia and we are receiving strong interest from potential distributors worldwide. We plan to work closely with our channel partners in Asia to support the retail launch of EnerPlex while continuing to pursue expansion opportunities for this revolutionary line of products around the world.” Lee continues, “Ascent unveiled the EnerPlex charger at Intersolar Europe last week to a tremendous response. The market is clearly excited about our sleek design which provides consumers with a new and fashionable way to power their smartphone. With this launch of our first EnerPlex product, with many more to come, we are taking the first step toward driving a new revenue stream with significant growth opportunity for the company.” This charger is the first product under Ascent’s new EnerPlex line of consumer products. Ascent is developing future products for other leading smart phones and consumer devices, such as the Samsung Galaxy S III.
Solar InGaN nanowire arrays assist energy conversion
Sandia’s latest development shows that indium gallium nitride may increase the conversion percentage of the sun’s frequencies and permits flexible energy absorption
Researchers creating electricity through photovoltaics want to convert as many of the sun’s wavelengths as possible to achieve maximum efficiency. Otherwise, they’re eating only a small
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www.compoundsemiconductor.net July 2012
part of a shot duck: wasting time and money by using only a tiny bit of the sun’s incoming energies.
For this reason, they see InGaN as a valuable future material for photovoltaic systems.
Changing the concentration of indium allows researchers to tune the material’s response so it collects solar energy from a variety of wavelengths. The more variations designed into the system, the more of the solar spectrum can be absorbed, leading to increased solar cell efficiencies. Silicon, today’s photovoltaic industry standard, is limited in the wavelength range it can ‘see’ and absorb.
But there is a problem. InGaN is typically grown on thin films of GaN. But because GaN atomic layers have different crystal lattice spacings from InGaN atomic layers, the mismatch leads to structural strain that limits both the layer thickness and percentage of indium that can be added. Thus, increasing the percentage of indium added broadens the solar spectrum that can be collected, but reduces the material’s ability to tolerate the strain.
Researchers creating electricity through photovoltaics want to convert as many of the sun’s wavelengths as possible to achieve maximum efficiency. Otherwise, they’re eating only a small part of a shot duck: wasting time and money by using only a tiny bit of the sun’s incoming energies.
For this reason, they see InGaN as a valuable future material for photovoltaic systems.
Changing the concentration of indium allows researchers to tune the material’s response so it collects solar energy from a variety of wavelengths. The more variations designed into the system, the more of the solar spectrum can be absorbed, leading to increased solar cell efficiencies. Silicon, today’s photovoltaic industry standard, is limited in the wavelength range it can ‘see’ and absorb.
But there is a problem. InGaN is typically grown on thin films of gallium nitride (GaN). But because GaN atomic layers have different crystal lattice spacings from InGaN atomic layers, the mismatch leads to structural strain that limits both the layer thickness and percentage of indium that can be added. Thus, increasing the percentage of indium added broadens the solar spectrum that can be collected,
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