Component One

• Prepare a 200- to 300-word history about the National Critical Technology’s technical application the team has selected.

Edmund Becquerel first observed the photovoltaic effect in 1839. However, it was not until 1904 that Albert Einstein explained the physics behind the operation of photovoltaics, for which he won the Noble Prize in 1921. Selenium was discovered to be the first semiconducting medium in 1873 and was being manufactured into wafers for solar cells by 1983.

The development of modern-day photovoltaics began in the 1940's with the introduction of the Czochralski process which generated highly pure crystalline silicon. In 1954, Bell Laboratories produced a 4% efficient crystalline silicon cell using the Czochralski process that showed how PV cells, modules, and arrays were examples of how this science could improve the lives of people all over the world. That same year, a solar battery converted six percent of incident sunlight into useful energy.

Today, we use solar cells to power calculators, satellites, and communications equipment; they can light our homes, pump water, run our appliances, and power highway emergency phones. In a surprising number of cases, PV power is the least expensive form of electricity for performing these tasks. Solar cells are making their mark on our economy. Solar energy is becoming very efficient now that we have achieved a high level of purity within the cells. Current industry leaders in solar cell development can now convert over 30 percent of the incident sunlight into useful energy. Crystalline cell prices are going down, usage has gone up, and advances in technology have increased.

• Cite three detailed examples of research done in the past 3 to 5 years which focused on the NCT application the team selected. Include: the funding agency, the principal investigator, the institution where the research is or was being conducted, the amount of the dollar award granted for the research, and the duration of the research grant.

1A. The first contract, from the DOE's Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) Program, is for a $6.2 million project spanning 3 years. AstroPower will share 51% of the project cost. The overall goal of the program is to strengthen U.S. photovoltaic industry leadership in the world market, and improve its competitive advantage. In particular, AstroPower will use the funding to reduce manufacturing costs and enhance solar cell performance of its newly introduced line of APex™ solar electric power products.

1B. The second contract, from DOE's Thin-Film Partnership Program, is for a $3.5 million project also spanning 3 years. AstroPower will share 39% of the projected cost. The overall goal of this program is to develop an advanced, thin-silicon-based photovoltaic module product. This development effort will eliminate the labor intensive work of soldering many small solar cells together during module fabrication while maintaining the proven performance, stability and reliability of crystalline silicon solar cell materials.

Dr. Allen M. Barnett, President and Chief Executive Officer of AstroPower, said "These [two grants] awards will further enhance AstroPower's Silicon-Film™ technology position. PVMaT support has been critical to the development of our newly introduced APex™ line, which is the first generation of products to utilize our Silicon-Film™ manufacturing process. We anticipate that the current awards will enable AstroPower to make further cost and efficiency improvements with our APex™ products while designing and developing next generation products using advanced Silicon-Film™ processes."

AstroPower recently invested in a new manufacturing facility for the production of APex™ solar cells and modules. The new factory is located in Newark, Delaware, approximately 6 miles from the Company's headquarters. When operating at full capacity, the 60,000 square-foot facility will produce approximately 9 megawatts of APex™ products per year, roughly tripling AstroPower's current production capacity.

2. A Boone company and an Iowa State research center are working to make a better light-trap with some newly received grants worth almost $4 million.

Iowa Thin Film Technologies, Inc. (ITFT) of Boone, in a joint project with ISU's Microelectronics Research Center, recently received two contracts worth $3.7 million over five years for research and development on the manufacturing of lightweight solar panels. Iowa Thin Film Technology makes lightweight, flexible solar panels for electrical power generation using a unique thin film photovoltaic material.

The company received $2.7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. "The purpose of this grant is to develop and improve the technology to manufacture solar cells less expensively and to improve their performance for more power per square foot", said Iowa Thin Film Technologies, Inc (ITFT) President Frank Jeffrey. ITFT received an additional $1 million from a $10 million consortium project with the federally funded Advanced Research Project Agency to further develop the process of manufacturing the modules. Jeffrey said, "The research funded by these grants will expand the applications of solar technology by improving the performance of the material and reducing the cost of production."

ITFT solar modules have many applications according to Lynne W. Brookes, executive administrator at ITFT, including portable field power for scientific, military and other outdoor uses and supplying power in space where payload weights are important. "We have delivered a couple of modules to companies who are using them on satellites going up," said ITFT President Frank Jeffrey. "There is a program run by NASA called the Small Satellite Technology Initiative. They are putting up a couple of small satellites with a lot of new technologies to try out."

"What we learn from the research and development is going to help us manufacture material at a lower cost," he said. "Each time you chop down the cost a little bit, the markets that you can serve go up quite a bit. Hopefully, by the end of the contract we will have manufacturing costs that would make it cost effective to mount roof panels on houses in the U.S., and feed power into the grid off those to compete with coal fire generation. We are really trying to bring the costs down to the point where it is a strong cost-competitive technology in the U.S."

3. On April 7th, Senator Robert Hill, Minister for the Environment, announced a $1 million grant to Sustainable Technologies Australia, Inc. (STA) to fund 50% of the costs of establishing a 500 kilowatt-plant to produce the STA new generation solar cells - dye doped titania solar cells. Senator Hill choose to make the announcement of the first round of grants under the Renewable Energy Commercialization Program at the Queanbeyan laboratories of STA, which was awarded one of the 6 Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) Program Grants.

• Based upon research conducted, explain how the NCT application your team chose has advanced scientific knowledge.

Our NCT application of Renewable Energy Sources has advanced scientific knowledge in several different ways. Along with a variety of consumer products (calculators, watches etc.), the United States, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, and Canada are developing new ways to use solar cell technology on a massive scale as they cope with the current energy crises.

Some of the most remarkable applications of solar cells include their uses in inaccessible locations such as mountain tops, middle of an ocean, desert, and outer space. Radio transceivers on mountain tops and telephone boxes in the country are beginning to be powered by solar technologies. Since they use very little amount of power, the electricity needed for operation can be provided with PV modules, in combination with a small battery.

In remote communities around the world, the use of solar cells is providing important economic and social benefits. One benefit of using solar cells in remote areas is that they have no fuel costs or fuel supply problems. Another reason is that the equipment can usually be operated without constant supervision. In addition, Solar cells are very reliable and require little maintenance.

One major area of science which has advanced due to the use of solar cells is astronomy and propulsion of spacecraft. "Photovoltaic solar generators have been and will remain the best choice for providing electrical power to satellites in an orbit around the Earth." The first practical application of photovoltaics was its use in the U.S. satellite Vanguard I in 1958. In space travel, traditional internal combustion power is not feasible. Solar cell technology is efficient, since the solar cell is light weighted and there is no heat or waste gas produced.

 
Image courtesy of University of Southampton