13 Feb 2012

25% Efficient Solar Cells Target for European Solar Cell Project

Photo-voltaic or solar power is reliant on the efficiency of the solar cells that convert the solar energy into electrical power. The solar cells are currently not particularly efficient and any improvements inth is area could not only provide a lucrative return, but also improve the viability of solar generation systems.

To address this issue, partners in a publicly-funded European research project have launched a multinational and multidisciplinary program under the name ‘Energy for a Green Society’ (ERG).

This is a three-year ENIAC JU project. Its aims to achieve substantial advances in the solar-energy supply chain, from sustainable harvesting to smart distribution. One of the headline aims is to increase the solar cell efficiency levels towards 25%. This would significantly increase the viability of many solar generation systems.

While there are many business reasons for addressing solar generation efficiency levels, Europe’s 2020 climate targets and general energy policies, create formidable technological challenges. The ERG program aims to help address these by improving the efficiency of solar cells, devising innovative harvesting techniques, reducing power-conversion losses, and enhancing energy-management strategies.

In order to achieve the improvements needed researchers will need to explore many new ideas. They will investigate the design and development of innovative solar cells: they will explore novel architectures, approaches and materials. This will not be a pure research programme because one of the objectives is to demonstrate commercially viable applications of printable dye-sensitized solar cells because these provide a promising low-cost alternative to silicon solutions currently used.

Work will not only be focussed on the solar cells themselves. Other work will look at optimising the use of energy generated by the photovoltaic systems, concentrating on power-management electronics for silicon-cell panels and micro-electro-mechanical systems for concentrated photovoltaic cells. Techniques that track the maximum power point to boost output from solar arrays and improve power-conversion efficiency at the module and segment levels will also be investigated.

ERG will also generate behavioural models for individual components of the smart grid that enable the development of optimal energy-dispatching and battery-charging algorithms based on inputs from wireless sensor nodes distributed across the network. Devising innovative solutions that optimize local smart grids in terms of power management and co-generation, power consumption and overall efficiency, with real-time energy metering and billing control is also in the project plan.

The total cost of the Energy for the Green Society project is €25.7 million. This is partially funded through a combination of European and national grants. The participating countries are Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Slovak Republic, Spain, Ireland, and United Kingdom.

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