Solar ♦ news digest
Global Solar Energy currently has 75 MWp of installed thin-film photovoltaic production capacity in the USA and EU.
The firm sells its products into special applications such as weight-restricted roofs, integrated building products, military markets and various emerging applications. The company currently supplies interconnected solar cells for the DOW POWERHOUSE Solar Shingle roofing product line.
Commenting on the decision to pursue new investors, CEO, Jeffrey Britt states, “Global Solar’s owners have accomplished their plan of developing leading CIGS thin-film technology and being the first company to reach commercial-scale production. The time has come to consider financial alternatives that will help enable the company to reach its strategic objectives.”
“The process offers new investors an opportunity to participate in the fastest-growing segment of the solar industry, flexible thin-film. Global Solar is differentiated from the broader solar industry as its products are specially designed to target high growth, niche markets that require flexible, lightweight solar solutions,” continues Britt.
The company does not anticipate any disruption in production or service to its customers during this process.
Diving into the benefits of GaInP solar cells
Gallium indium phosphide cells have high quantum efficiency in wavelengths between 400 and 700 nm and an intrinsically low dark current. They provide high efficiency in lowlight conditions, such as underwater
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Electronics Science and Technology Division have developed high bandgap solar cells capable of producing sufficient power to operate electronic sensor systems at depths as much as 9 metres.
Underwater autonomous systems and sensor platforms are severely limited by the lack of long endurance power sources. To date, these systems must rely on on-shore power, batteries or solar
power supplied by an above water platform. Attempts to use photovoltaics have had limited success, primarily due to the lack of penetrating sunlight and the use of solar cells optimized more towards the unimpeded terrestrial solar spectrum.
“The use of autonomous systems to provide situational awareness and long-term environment monitoring underwater is increasing,” says Phillip Jenkins, head, NRL Imagers and Detectors Section. “Although water absorbs sunlight, the technical challenge is to develop a solar cell that can efficiently convert these underwater photons to electricity.”
Even though the absolute intensity of solar radiation is lower underwater, the spectral content is narrow and thus lends itself to high conversion efficiency if the solar cell is well matched to the wavelength range. Previous attempts to operate solar cells underwater have focused on crystalline silicon solar cells and more recently, amorphous silicon cells.
Unlike silicon cells, high-quality GaInP cells are well suited for underwater operation. GaInP cells have high quantum efficiency in wavelengths in the visible light region, (between 400 and 700 nm) and exhibit an intrinsically low dark current. Both properties are critical for high efficiency in lowlight conditions.
The filtered spectrum of the sun underwater is biased toward the blue/green portion of the spectrum and thus higher bandgap cells such as GaInP perform much better than conventional silicon cells, notes Jenkins.
Power density of GaInP and crystalline silicon cells, underwater, as a function of depth
Preliminary results at a maximum depth of 9.1 m reveal output to be 7 W/m2 of solar cells, sufficient to demonstrate there is useful solar power to be harvested at depths commonly found in near shore littoral zones.
Scientists at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Electronics Science and Technology Division have developed high bandgap solar cells capable of producing sufficient power to operate electronic sensor systems at depths as much as 9 metres.
Underwater autonomous systems and sensor July 2012
www.compoundsemiconductor.net 141
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186