Caltech and BP Team Up to Improve Electricity-Producing Solar Cells
PASADENA, Calif.—The California Institute of Technology has teamed up with the energy company BP to look for better and cheaper ways of producing solar cells. The goal of the program is to make the cost of solar electricity more competitive by increasing the current efficiency levels of solar cells.
The program is to be announced June 27 at the Photovoltaics Summit 2006 in San Diego. For an initial five-year period, researchers at Caltech and BP will explore a method of growing silicon by creating arrays of nanorods rather than by casting ingots and cutting wafers, which is the current conventional way of producing silicon for solar cells. Nanorods are small cylinders of silicon that can be 100 times smaller than a human hair and would be tightly packed in an array like bristles in a brush.
A solar cell made up of an array of nanorods will be able to efficiently absorb light along the length of the rods while also collecting the electricity generated by sunlight more efficiently than a conventional solar cell.
The Caltech solar nanorod program will be directed by Nate Lewis, the George L. Argyros Professor and professor of chemistry, and Harry Atwater, the Howard Hughes Professor and professor of applied physics and materials science. In addition, eight postdoctoral researchers and graduate students will work on the project.
"Nanotechnology can offer new and unique ways to make solar-cell materials that are cheaper yet could perform nearly as well as conventional materials," says Lewis, an expert in surface chemistry and photochemistry.
Lewis's group will investigate uses of nanotechnology to create designer solar-cell materials, from nanorods to nanowires, in order to change the conventional paradigm for solar-cell materials.
"Using nanorods as the active elements opens up very new approaches to design and low-cost fabrication of high-performance solar cells," adds Atwater, an expert in electronic and optoelectronic materials and devices.
Atwater's group will investigate ways of creating silicon-based single-junction and compound semiconductor-multijunction nanorod solar cells using vapor-deposition synthesis methods that are scalable to very large areas.
According to BP officials, the research contract is part of the company's long-term technology strategy and is in keeping with its practice of partnering with the world's leading universities on key technology challenges. The program is also aligned with Alternative Energy, a new business launched by BP in November 2005 that is focused on developing low-carbon options for the power industry.
BP Solar's CEO and president, Lee Edwards, said, "This program represents a significant commitment by BP to the long-term potential of solar energy and complements our existing technology programs with the promise for major breakthroughs in solar technology. "Nanorod technology offers enormous promise. However, like any new technology, challenges remain to be solved to make it commercially viable at scale."
