Ink-jet Solar Cells
One of the major
limiting factors in solar energy technology is the production cost
of each solar cell. These prices have slowly been coming down over the
years and as new technologies come online their production costs are
expected to drop even more. In order for alternative energy technologies to
really compete with fossil fuel energies, they must first become as
inexpensive to produce.
Just recently a new method for printing solar cells has
been developed that will dramatically decrease their production
price as well as increase each cell's performance. The newly
developed method uses an ink-jet printing process to make
electrical connections within a solar cell. This new ink-jet
process is much more precise then previous methods, and so it uses less material for these
connections. The print heads also don't need to make contact with
the silicon it's self, so this method works on thinner silicon
wafers. The ink-jet printer is built by a company called iTi Solar,
in Boulder, CO.
One of the major advances in the new ink-jet method is
that it uses silver ink that is printed
on the solar cells. The silver ink collects the electrons that have
been converted from sun light by the silicone. The collection of
these electrons creates an electrical current. Instead of using
silver ink, the old process used silver past. The new silver ink is
said to be far more conductive then the old silver paste. That higher
conductivity allows for much more efficient electron gathering. This
also allows for thinner lines that need to be printed on the silicon
wafer,(35 to 40
micrometers wide), compared to
(100 to 125 micrometers wide with the
old
screen printing process). In addition to being much, much cheaper, the
smaller lines also mean an increase in performance since the thinner
silver lines cover less active material in shade.
As part of the cost saving, the new solar cell
technology could allow for manufacturers to cut
the amount of silicone needed for production in half! "Since
silicon can account for about three-quarters of the cost of
conventional solar cells, this could significantly lower the price
of solar power. The technique can reduce the amount of other
materials used and improve solar-cell performance."
(-Technology Review) This cost cut should dramatically influence the
industry and lead to a much more widespread usage of solar
technology.
Yet another benefit to the new solar cell printing technology
is that it can be installed
into existing solar-cell manufacturing lines, which will allow for
quick deployment. Commercial production of ink-jet solar cells is
expected with-in a years time.
-Sources-