Nanoparticles Boost Solar Cell Efficiency

[skids]

Ignore the headlines that read "make solar cells 60% more efficient," as that's some scientifically illiterate journalist's mistake.

But this tech could salvage single junction Si's competitiveness going forward against the energing thin films and concentrators, for sure, if it can be implemented quickly enough to meet them at the market. It will probably work out to a 4 to 10 percentage point increase from the current efficiency figures which generally cluster around the mid teens to low twenties.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Octillion Corp. (OTCBB:OCTL) today announced that researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have observed a new and important high-energy effect in silicon nanoparticles -- the principal material used in Octillion's NanoPower Window technology - which results in a process where more of the sun's energy is converted into electricity.

...

Octillion is developing the first-of-its-kind transparent glass window capable of generating electricity using silicon nanoparticles. Last week, in a published study unrelated to the NREL findings, researchers reported that the nanoparticles used in Octillion's NanoPower Window technology are able to substantially increase the power performance of conventional solar cells by 60-70% in the ultraviolet-blue range and significantly boost power by as much as 10% in the visible light range.

...

Importantly, the silicon nanoparticles used in Octillion's NanoPower Window technology are able to successfully convert the same UV components that typically cause damage and create wasteful heat into useful electrical energy, a recently published finding. (American Institute of Physics, Applied Physics Letters; August 6, 2007)

According to the NREL, until now MEG has only been reported to occur in: nanocrystals made of materials not currently used in commercial solar cells; and generally unsafe materials such as lead. In contrast, Octillion's high-energy nanoparticles are made of silicon, a toxicologically inert substance and the world's most abundant, naturally-occurring element, second only to oxygen. Octillion's NanoPower Window technology exclusively makes use of nanoparticles from silicon.

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070821006028&newsLang=en

Some context:

[w4rma]

1. 100% x 9%/15% = 60% (nt)

[skids]

2. The 15% cells won't be at the upper end of that range.

And keep in mind I pulled those figures out of my ass by eyeballing it.