TAGS: Industrial Coatings
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office selected two University of Washington professors in the Department of Chemistry and the Clean Energy Institute to receive nearly $1.5 million in funding for two separate endeavors in solar photovoltaic research.
USD 1.5 Mn Funding for two Separate Endeavors
The projects are led by Daniel Gamelin, director of the UW-based Molecular Engineering Materials Center, and David Ginger, chief scientist at the CEI and co-director of the Northwest Institute for Materials Physics, Chemistry and Technology, a partnership between the UW and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Ginger’s project, which will receive $1.25 million, focuses on developing new methods to alleviate the impact of defects in perovskite solar cells.
Gamelin’s project, which will receive $200,000, aims to modify solar cells so they can collect high-energy photons more efficiently. Today’s solar cells can convert low-energy photons to electrical power efficiently, but the high-energy variety is converted at very low efficiency — a major source of energy loss.
Surface Coatings “Convert” High-energy Photons to Low-energy Photons
Gamelin’s team has developed materials that can absorb high-energy photons and emit twice as many low-energy photons, a process termed “quantum cutting.” Their SETO project seeks to integrate these materials as thin layers on the surfaces of solar cells. These surface coatings would essentially “convert” high-energy photons to low-energy photons, allowing their absorption by the solar cell and potentially doubling the current generated by the solar cell. With the new funding, Gamelin’s team will work to develop scalable deposition techniques and prototype large-area solar cells.
The funds from the Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office are part of $28 million in awards for 25 projects in photovoltaics and related fields to boost efficiency and reduce costs in solar energy, according to a March 22 announcement from the office. The first set of selections from this program, announced late last year, included more than $2.3 million awarded to UW projects.
Source: University of Washington