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We all are acquainted with the positive impact of alternative energy on our environment. Now researchers are trying to improve upon the existing alternative energy technology. As far as solar energy is concerned they are attempting to make solar panels inexpensive and people friendly. Generally the solar panels are quite bulky and challenging to fit in on existing architecture. Therefore scientists all over the world are concentrating on producing organic solar cells. They could be affordable and look like thin films.

Although the above concept seems so romantic on paper reality is always different. Researchers are facing a lot of hurdles to acquire a desired result. One major obstruction is to utilize these carbon-based materials to unfailingly form the appropriate structure at the nanoscale (tinier than 2-millionths of an inch). This way the structure would be highly efficient in converting light to electricity. They also want to utilize inexpensive plastics that would be able to convert ten percent sunlight that they absorb into usable electricity. Another aspect they are paying attention to is the manufacturing procedure which should be free of complicated steps.

David Ginger is an associate professor of chemistry at University of Washington. He is heading a research team which is working on a technique to make images of tiny bubbles and channels. They would be 10,000 times smaller than a human hair and would be implanted inside plastic solar cells. These bubbles and channels would be produced through a baking process known as annealing. It is believed that this procedure will help in improving the materials’ performance. They are also trying to monitor the amount of electricity produced by each bubble and channel. This way research will be able to pinpoint whether the material under particular condition will produce maximum electricity.

Plastic solar cells are manufactured by the amalgamation of two materials in a thin film. The next sensible step is to bake them to improve their performance. This baking will produce bubbles and channels as happens with a cake batter. The importance of the bubbles and channels lies in the effect that how well the cell turns light into electricity and how much of the electric current really gets to the wires leading out of the cell. Here several permutations and combinations can be tried to arrive at the conclusion that how much heat is applied and for how long to achieve a good output.

By now we know that the exact structure of the bubbles and channels is critical to the solar cell’s functioning. But one can’t ignore the combination of baking time, bubble size, channel connectivity and efficiency. Ginger is of the view that the polymer tested is not probable to reach the 10 percent efficiency threshold. But this will not be an exercise in vein. This will pave the path to show which new combinations of materials and at what baking time and temperature could form bubbles and channels in a way that the resulting polymer might meet the standard.

Presently researchers are eying to charge cell phones or mp3 players using plastic solar chargers. These solar cells can be put into a purse or backpack. But they are thinking of graduating to develop electricity on large scale.

Genuinely astonishing are the progressive ways solar power is put into use. Now a team of scientists working in Sandia National Laboratories is centering on researching basic steps to make synthetic liquid fuel with the help of solar panels. The goal is that this will assist substantially reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Conversion goals:

The team is using a cerium-oxide-based system to turn CO2 into carbon monoxide.

They’re aiming to change water in a similar way into hydrogen with the help of solar power as well.

Using both of these to develop synthetic fuel.

Counter Rotating Ring Receiver Reactor Recuperator (CR5):

Converting CO2:

This two-chambered machine is using rotating rings of cerium oxide and a vast parabolic mirror heating up the solar energy to 1500 degrees which releases oxygen from cerium oxide and the oxygen gets pumped out. The rotation takes off the cooling deoxygenated ring into other chamber where it once again reacts with the pumped CO2 to create cerium oxide and carbon monoxide. A steady stream of carbon monoxide is developed.

Plan is to utilize the CO2 from power-plant chimneys at first, but ultimately they are planning to take CO2 directly from the air.

Converting water:

In a related method some other reactor can produce water in the similar way but rather from CO2, water is introduced and a stream of hydrogen is developed.

Syngas – the synthetic fuel:

Now once again solar energy is applied. By using mirrors, concentrated solar energy at 400 degree Celsius aids in forming calcium carbonate by causing reaction between CO2 and calcium oxide. Now calcium carbonate is once again heated to 800 degrees with solar power and another reaction comes about releasing pure CO2 and calcium oxide. In a similar way in another reactor with CO2 and zinc oxide, zinc metal and oxygen molecules are created. Combining with zinc, steam and CO2 produce synthetic fuel known as Syngas and zinc oxide.

CO2 based power:

James Miller, a combustion chemist at Sandia, says in New Scientist, “This area holds out promise for technologies that can produce large amounts of carbon-neutral power at affordable prices, which can be used where and when that power is needed.”

The chances of producing solar power as a more commercially viable source of alternative energy seem brighter now with the positive research results pioneered by University of Illinois professors. The Department of Energy and National Science Foundation-funded team led by Professors John Rogers, and Xiuling Li, has been exploring ways to find more optimal ways to reduce the cost of semiconductors other than silicon.

Superiority of semiconductor gallium:

The semiconductor gallium arsenide and other compound semiconductors are twice as effective as the standard silicon semiconductor. But the prohibitively high production price has been the staggering block which has been circumvented by the innovative processes used by this group. To boot, their techniques have been shown to be more appropriate cost-wise as well open a well of opportunities to utilize high-speed gallium or other semiconductors to make flexible thin-film electronics.

Multi-layer technique:

Instead of thin single-layer gallium arsenide situated on small wafers, the Illinois group tried to make ‘pancake’-like stacks of 10 layers deposited at one go and peel the layers off separately, transfer them and lay them side by side. Establishing all details of this routine, Professor Rogers, the Lee J. Flory Founder Chair in Engineering Innovation & Professor of materials science and engineering and of chemistry said, “We’re creating bulk quantities of material, as opposed to just the thin single-layer manner in which it is typically grown…. “You really multiply the area coverage, and by a similar multiplier you reduce the cost, while at the same time eliminating the consumption of the wafer.”

Illinois team & research paper:

The Illinois team led by Professors John Rogers, and Xiuling Li, is planning to publish their research paper online on May 20, 2010, in the journal ‘Nature’. Along with the multi-layer process and other details of their research, they’ll demonstrate three types of devices – light sensors, high-speed transistors and solar cells which will use gallium arsenide chips.

The team as well includes University of Illinois post-doctoral researchers Jongseung Yoon, Sungjin Jo and Inhwa Jung; students Ik Su Chun and Hoon-Sik Kin; also Professor James Coleman of electrical and computer engineering, from Hanyang University in Seoul Ungyu Paik and Semprius Inc, scientists, Matthew Meitl and Etienne Menard.

Imagine a greenhouse that is acquiring solar power and food as well. This excellent experiment is being done in Italy. The companies accountable for this project are Renewable energy company Solar ReFeel, CeRSAA and solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. The test locate has been built at CeRSAA’s Albenga, Italy. The project intends to accomplish the production of both food and electricity. The research team also would like to* validate the crop growth benefits of Solyndra’s technology by taking help of independent testing by a leading agricultural research institution.

The project region is spread over an area of 400 square meters at the CeRSAA research center. At this specific building, Solyndra’s photovoltaic systems have been incorporated into the greenhouse structures. Solyndra is going for an exclusive cylindrical applied science (see video above). This technology helps in capturing direct, diffused, and reflected sunlight across a 360 degree surface and at the same time permitting a uniform transmission of light for the plants underneath.

The study will center on the production of numerous crops common in the Mediterranean region. They’ll observe, measure and evaluate these crops which are grown below the greenhouse structures with the integrated solar system. This project will measure and compare the yield and the expected benefit for crops grown under Solyndra’s new, integrated greenhouse structures with same crops grown in common greenhouses.

The time span of this project will be 24 months. During this period all the partners will supply their expertise to this project. CeRSAA, special agency of the Chamber of Commerce of Savona, will take care of the design and implementation of farming studies as per its specialization. CeRSAA will as well be responsible for technical and human resources. Solyndra is the United States based producer of solar systems. It had provided the greenhouse framework and photovoltaic components. Solyndra has also supervised the building of the test site. Enerqos Group is a leader in the design and implementation of PV systems in Italy. They’re furnishing installation support and electrical contracting.

Solar ReFeel has specialization in both the ground-mounted and rooftop photovoltaic plants. Solar ReFeel is coordinating the research amongst the involved parties. Solar ReFeel will share the research determinations. They as well intend to cash in on the successful products.

The goal of the study is to fully understand and take advantage of the extraordinary potential of greenhouse integrated solar power development as a long-term, substantial business model.

Solar energy is existing in abundance around us. The trouble is how to harness a substantial portion of it for human use. How to raise the efficiency bar of solar transition into electricity? Scientists are endlessly engaged in finding a way out for this problem. Lately scientists at the Kyoto Institute of Technology have deviated from the regular path and tried to trap the visible as well as invisible rays of sun for electricity. They tried to produce a new photovoltaic cell that can capture visible, infrared and ultraviolet light of the sun. The team now thinks that this photovoltaic will be extremely efficient for solar power transition.

In March, 2010 a meeting was held by the Japan Society of Applied Physics. In this meeting a research group from the Kyoto Institute of Technology talked about their new photovoltaic cell that is capable of generating electricity not only from visible light, but from ultraviolet and infrared light as well. The research group is headed by the associate professor Saki Sonoda. The research group presented a 90-minute lecture on the cell under the title “Nitride Semiconductor Added With Transition Metals as a Photoelectric Conversion Material for Ultraviolet, Visible and Infrared Lights ~ In the Aim of Realizing the Next-generation Super-efficient PV Cell With a Simple Element Structure.”

Saki Sonoda is quite hopeful that his team’s work would lead towards a more effective PV cell that can be single-junction instead of the more conventional multi-junction. A multi-junction PV cell has multiple thin films of varying absorption capabilities. This will help in capturing the entire spectrum of light. But with a single-junction cell all that light can be absorbed using a single junction cell.

These new PV cells were comprised of gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor. This new photovoltaic cell is produced by ‘doping’ a wide bandgap transparent composite semiconductor i.e. gallium nitride (GaN) with a 3d transition metal such as manganese. Gallium belongs to the family of scandium, titanium, vanadium, chrome, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, and zinc. Sonoda explained that his team has gone for those additive elements. He said that even aluminum nitride (AlN), which has a very large bandgap, can perhaps have an absorbing region in the visible light range,

If we view the stats we can see that the short-circuit current density of the PV cell is about 10?A/cm2, which is nearly 1/1,000 that of a normal crystalline silicon PV cell. Sonoda explained that typically the cell and electrodes are separated, therefore the electric resistance of the p-type GaN connecting them is very large. Now we can hope that the findings of the research group are anticipated to pave the way to a GaN-based PV cell with a entirely different mechanism.

Solar panels need silicon for absorption of light. Silicon does not come cheap.This cost-factor is keeping people from using solar energy on a large scale. Scientists utilize another substance i.e. ruthenium for solar cells. Rutheniumcan is cheaper than silicon but ruthenium is a rare metal on Earth. It’s as rare as platinum. Of course it can not be obtainable for mass production. Compared to silicon, carbon is cheap and plentiful. The graphene, another form of carbon, is capable of absorbing a wide range of light frequencies.

Graphene is a single sheet of carbon, one atom thick. Graphene has potential to be utilized as an effective, less toxic and cheaper than other alternatives for solar cells. Chemists at Indiana University Bloomington are attempting to come up with a more effective alternative than silicon. If successful, this can be a path breaking breakthrough.

Other people as well took this initiative of using carbon sheets for solar power. But they encountered some hurdles. They used the graphene form of carbon for solar cells. Grephene is akin to graphite used in pencil lead. Graphene absorbs a wide range of light frequencies. Scientists have found large sheets of graphene to be overly unmanageable to work with. Large sheets are sticky and get bonded with other sheets. Now Indiana University Bloomington researchers are trying to deal with this problem. They’re trying to produce non-sticky graphene sheets that are stable. They’re putting their efforts on “attaching a semi-rigid, semi-flexible, three-dimensional sidegroup to the sides of the graphene.” They know how to derive energy from carbon. Now chemists from Indiana University Bloomington are graduating to the following logical step i.e. conversion of that energy into electricity. If everything will turn out alright then carbon can be an alternative to expensive silicon and ruthenium, which is as rare as platinum.

Chemists and engineers kept on trying to work out a solution for the stickiness of graphene. They got up many methods for keeping single graphene sheets separate. Until now the most effective solution prior to the Indiana University Bloomington scientists’ experiment has been breaking up graphite (top-down) into sheets and wrap polymers around them. But this method has its own disadvantage. Those graphene sheets are too large for light absorption for solar cells. Indiana University chemists devised a entirely new method for carbon sheets. They utilized a 3-D bramble patch between the carbon sheets. This process helped the scientists to dissolve sheets containing as many as 168 carbon atoms. They are successful in making the graphene sheets from smaller molecules (bottom-up) so that they are uniform in size. Until now, it’s the biggest stable graphene sheet ever made with the bottom-up approach. Chemist Liang-shi Li, who led the research, tells us, “Our interest stems from wanting to find an alternative, readily available material that can efficiently absorb sunlight. At the moment the most common materials for absorbing light in solar cells are silicon and compounds containing ruthenium. Each has disadvantages.”

Li is of the opinion, “Harvesting energy from the sun is a prerequisite step. How to turn the energy into electricity is the next. We think we have a good start.” Other members of the project team are Ph D students Xin Yan and Xiao Cui and postdoctoral fellow Binsong Li. This project is supported by the National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund.

Morocco is a North African country without any oil reserves. But nature has blessed this country with another bounty i.e. over 3000 hours of sunlight annually. Now they are taking aim to undertake an ambitious plan of developing 40% of their energy needs via solar energy. They’ll spend $9 billion to generate 2000MWs of energy by 2020. It will require 5 solar power stations to create 2000MWs of energy. These power stations will be located in the regions of Ouarzazate, Ain Bni Mathar, Foum Al Oued, Boujdour and Sebkhat Tah. The first station is anticipated to become operational by 2015.

Morocco’s Finance Minister Salaheddine Mezouar wants the world to perceive Morocco as an environmentally friendly country. He said, “The project sends a very clear message in the current situation, which is dominated by the need to face up to the challenges of climate change.” The minister added that “Morocco is determined to protect the environment in all its future projects.”

Morocco’s authorities are confident of the success of this project. Energy Minister Amina Benkhadra makes a promise, “This is a bold but realistic project. We will guarantee all the technical and financial resources to make it succeed.”

This country’s politicians are anxious to cut its dependence of foreign oil and gas imports and save money and to leave green footprints in the sands of time. For the project, Morocco is mobilizing multiple financing sources and partners. Morocco can get assistance for this project from the World Bank, the European Commission, and Germany and Desertec. Desertec is a coalition of 13 energy and engineering companies aiming for a renewable energy grid in Africa and subsequently shipping the energy to Europe. Desertec was founded in 2009. Their organization’s focus is on alternative power generation using wind and sunlight. They would like to build a series of concentrated solar power (CSP), photovoltaic (PV) and wind projects in the Middle East and North Africa region.

Said Mouline is the director of Morocco’s Centre for Renewable Energy Development. He says, “This project will help Morocco reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7 million tonnes of CO2. This will help us play our role in mitigation of climate change.” He said again, “Clean energy projects such as this will create many new jobs in the areas selected for the solar plants as well as boost the country’s scientific expertise in the field of solar energy.”

Now the Arab countries are waking up to the reality of oil reserves. They also want to trap the power of alternative sources of energy. Algeria, Qatar, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Tunisia are all making fruitful attempts to utilize the power of sunlight. Israel is already using solar power with success in many areas such as water heating systems. Israel is also earning reputation as a global leader in innovating solar energy solutions. Morocco might seek help of Israel on this ambitious project as well.

The Energy Minister stressed that they will use the state-of-the-art technology available in the market. She says, “We look for the most sophisticated technology available in the world to use for this project.”

Ali Fassi Fihri is the Chairman of ONE, Morocco’s power utility. He shares his opinion, “The project would add in terms of power generation the equivalent of the current electricity consumption of the country’s commercial capital Casablanca.”

Now we can have a green charger for our computers and laptops. We can take our laptops to outdoors and continue using them without bothering that the charge will run out. Muzatch offers a solar charger for our computers. It’s called the MZH-SP-6500 / SP-6000 renewable energy charger. If one is traveling long distance in a car, or departing on a business trip or in the wilderness and requires emergency power for laptop, this solar charger will come handy.

Muzatch claims that their solar charger can charge 95% of the digital products presently available in the market. You can plug in this solar charger into mobile phone, PDA, DC, digital camera, digital learning machine, MP3, MP4 and PSP game, mobile DVD players. This solar charger can be well-matched with ASUS, HP, Acer Travelmate Series, Compaq Prosignia Series, ThinkPad 1410/1411.1441/1450/1451/1472/730T /350/500/510 Series, Compaq Armada 100/4100/4200, Contura Series, Toshiba 4090XDVD/2545CDS Series T Series and numerous digital products:

Muzatch reassures that they have a built-in lithium-ion battery. Its capacity is of 12,000 mAh. Muzatch “solar charger can present an output voltage ranging from 5V to 22V”. This solar charger is also protected from over charge, over release, over current and short circuits due to built-in intelligence monitoring. Muzatch solar charger is obtainable for $149.95.

When we use a entirely new product, as a user we go through certain kind of stress and uneasiness. Here the manufacturer can step in and come out with information user is seeking to guarantee the readers. Muzatch solar charger manufacturer explains that their product is made up of highest caliber lithium ion electricity core-300. They also state that their charging and discharging capacity is more than 90%.

Their product is sound on the portability front as well. They offer personalized design; the single manual pressed key makes using the charger less complicated.

SunEdison is a division of MEMC Electronic Materials, Inc. They have pocketed a project to produce and build a photovoltaic solar power plant in Northeastern Italy, near the town of Rovigo. This solar power plant will have a capacity of 72 Megawatt (MW). This will be the biggest solar power plant in Europe. SunEdison is a North American company. It funds, installs and operates distributed power plants using photovoltaic engineerings. In 2009, SunEdison delivered more kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy than any other solar services supplier in U.S.A.

Banco Santander will be the partner of SunEdison in this project. They’re a retail and commercial bank, based in Spain. It’s the biggest financial group in Spain and Latin America. A few more companies are anticipated to join this project as partners. Pancho Perez, General Manager for Europe and MENA region at SunEdison says, “A critical element of our approach is working closely with the right partners including developers, suppliers and contractors. For the Rovigo project, we selected Isolux Corsan, a large-scale infrastructure construction company with a strong track record in utility-scale solar plants.”

The stats say that solar power plant would supply power to 17,150 homes and it would result in reducing 41,000 tons of CO2 in the atmosphere. This total will be akin to taking off 8,000 cars from the road. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

Carlos Domenech is the President of SunEdison. He’s speaking about his solar projects, “SunEdison is focused on enabling the growth of global solar markets through strong capabilities in project finance, engineering, low-cost procurement and operations and maintenance services.”

SunEdison’s solar power plant would cover an area of as big as 120 soccer fields. Once accomplished, the plant will be spread over 9.15 million square feet of area.

Renzo Marangon is the government official of the Veneto region. He expresses his views about solar project, “Veneto is taking decisive action to advance the use of clean, renewable energy sources. At the same time, this project is expected to create over 350 local construction jobs and build expertise in advanced energy technologies. We expect Rovigo to serve as a European model for large-scale, alternative-energy projects.”

This solar-power plant will delight the distinction of being the biggest in Europe. Currently, the largest solar power plant exists in Olmedilla, Spain. Its capacity is is a 60MW. Another solar power plant is in Strasskirchen, Germany. It has the capacity of 50 MW.

MEMC deals in the manufacturing and sale of wafers and associated intermediate products to the semiconductor and solar industries. MEMC has their own R&D and manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Through its SunEdison division, MEMC is also a developer of solar power projects and North America’s biggest solar energy services supplier.

Nanoscience is quite fascinated with the process of photosynthesis. They want to duplicate this process displayed by green plants and utilize the solar power for energy use. Until now power generating solar panels are not in a spot to replace the fossil fuels. They develop little amount of energy and quite costly as well. Generation of solar energy also depends on geographical locations. Deserts are more appropriate locations for solar power than areas undergoing temperate climate. But we can have a new source of solar power that also presented a power packed performance for us when it’s on our dinner/lunch plate i.e. pea power.

We acknowledge they taste good but scientists are attempting to utilize them for generation of solar energy. This project is undertaken by researchers from Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biochemistry. They discover that minute crystals present in peas could be utilized as battery chargers. They’re not ruling out the possibility of pea crystals as the core of efficient artificial solar cells.

Nanoscience is essentially the science of small particles of materials. In modern times it’s one of the hot pursuits in research frontiers. Mother Nature, till date is the superior nanoscientist. She has no problem in placing the molecules with sub-nanometer precision. It’s the familiar routine job for nature. This kind of positioning is also vital to the operation of biological complexes such as photosynthesis. Prof. Nelson’s research paid attention to this aspect.

Green plants change over solar energy into chemical energy through several reactions. Tel Aviv’s scientists are concentrating on the Photosystem I (PSI) complex, because this particular phase is responsible for the conversion of light energy into other types of energy, such as chemical energy. The Tel Aviv researchers discovered that this complex is packed into crystals found in peas. These crystals could possibly turn light energy into electricity.

Prof. Nathan Nelson of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biochemistry tells us, “Looking at the most complicated membrane structure found in a plant, we deciphered a complex membrane protein structure which is the core of our new proposed model for developing ‘green’ energy.”

Plants have developed a perfect mechanism to convert solar energy into chemical energy. They’ve developed a very sophisticated “nano-machinery” which works in association with sunlight and furnishes a perfect quantum yield of 100%. This whole process is termed as Photosystem I (PSI) complex. The same is being isolated from pea leaves and crystallized. Prof. Nelson put this crystal structure to high resolution. This way he was able to describe its intricate structure in detail.

The Tel Aviv University team executed various experiments and placed the crystals on gold covered plates. They were able to generate a charge of 10 volts. That is not sufficient to establish a power house but it can be utilized for low-energy power switches. Prof. Nelson explains about his amazement and joy, “One can imagine our amazement and joy when, upon illumination of those crystals placed on gold covered plates, we were able to generate a voltage of 10 volts. This won’t solve our world’s energy problem, but this could be assembled in power switches for low-power solar needs, for example.”

Prof. Nelson explains, “My research aims to come close to achieving the energy production that plants can obtain when converting sun to sugars in their green leaves.”

Prof. Nelson states further, “If we could come even close to how plants are manufacturing their sugar energy, we’d have a breakthrough. It’s therefore important to solve the structure of this nano-machine to understand its function.”