Solar3D Inc. has filed a patent application for its new solar cell design and methods of fabrication. "With the filing of this patent, we are poised to create something truly exciting," commented Jim Nelson, chief executive officer at Solar3D, in a press release.
Solar3D re-engineers the solar cell to manage the light and extract all of its available power, and aims at making it significantly more efficient and production friendly. Typically, solar cells reflect around 30 percent of incident sunlight off their surface, while a lot more of the energy is lost inside the solar cell materials. The solar cell technology developed by Solar3D is inspired by light management techniques used in fiber optic devices, and leverages a 3D design to trap sunlight inside micro-photovoltaic structures.
The company has been addressing the cost related factors at both ends to deliver electricity at a substantially reduced cost per kilowatt hour. In the technique applied, the photons bounce inside these structures until they are converted into electrons. Thus making this next generation solar cell more efficient and optimizes solar power of the cell, reducing the costs per watt considerably.
Although the solar 3-D technology offered by Solar3Dis being applied on can be applied silicon that is an abundant material and has a fully grown production industry, it can also be applied to a number of photovoltaic materials such as gallium arsenide.
“We believe that the Sun, an infinite source of energy, should be used to provide a substantial percentage of electricity used by the world. By combining micro-photovoltaics with advanced light management technology into a novel 3-dimensional solar cell, we believe that will be possible,” Nelson added.
Recently, Solar3D, Inc. announced the appointment of Dr. Changwan Son as its Director of Technology to lead the development of the company's technology and prototype. Dr. Son is a widely known expert in the field of photonics and optoelectronic devices, and his work has been published in Integrated Photonics and Nanophotonics Research and Applications, and the Lasers and Electro Optics Society.
“Many industry observers and analysts have said that for the solar industry to truly make a difference, the developers of the next generation solar technologies will have to step up. This application represents our intention to step up and make a real difference in the world” Nelson claimed.