Startup Hopes to Double the Power of Solar

October 19th, 2012 by Jake Richardson

A Massachusetts start-up called Bandgap Engineering is aiming to double the power generation of solar cells using nanowires. Already, the company says it has achieved a 5% increase in energy conversion for solar cells and their cost is just one dollar per watt to install.

When placed in cells, their nanowires cause sunlight to bounce around inside and greatly increase the chance it will be absorbed. If Bandgap can arrange the nanowires so they are aligned with specific planes, solar cells could produce electricity from low-light situations.

Solar cells with an efficiency of 60% are theoretically possible but the startup is aiming at 38% for now. It is also applying its nano-silicon technology to lithium-ion batteries.

Bandgap was awarded a $750,000 DOE grant in 2011.

Image Credit: Illustration by Kristian Molhave, Wiki Commons

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Tags: bandgap, quickies, startups

About the Author

Jake Richardson Hello, I have been writing online for some time, and enjoy the outdoors. If you like, you can follow me on Google Plus.

mds

They need to get significantly higher than 20% since mono-cast Si, along with tough competition, will be taking cSi to over 20% at very low cost of panels over next few years.
mds

“their cost is just one dollar per watt to install”They should be talking about everything accept the panels. You’re right it’s not clear. Strategy is good if they can do as they claim. Many are so used to the cost of the panels being the driver (Jigar Shah) that they don’t realize the PV game has changed. It is no longer about the cost of the panels. It is now more about the total installed cost, particularly in the USA market. The BOS costs, including installation, are now the larger cost problem for solar PV. If they can actually double efficiency while keeping panel costs below $1/W, then they could significantly reduce total installed costs. That is a reasonable claim. Now, can they actually do this? Interesting! This is not the only new solar tech on the horizon that will keep up the competition in this market. The cost of solar PV will continue to drop going forward.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Jigar Shah recently provided a guest post for CleanTechnica and he didn’t seem to be focused on panel costs: http://cleantechnica.com/2012/10/04/are-subsidies-holding-back-u-s-solar-deployment-cleantechnica-exclusive-from-jigar-shah/
http://www.facebook.com/matthew.t.peffly Matthew Todd Peffly

Well from the link it says
“Richard Chleboski, CEO of Bandgap said that the long term goal is to double the power generation of the cell, but already the technology allows them to create cells that convert 20% of the solar energy into electricity at a cost of just $1 per watt to produce and install; this compares with 15% which is the average efficiency of modern solar cells, at a cost of a few dollars per watt.”
- Bob_Wallace
  
  Current spot prices for cells (not finished panels, but the cells) is $0.35/watt. There’s not significant room to lower that cost to a degree that would reflect “dollars per watt” at the installed level.
  
  Once the cell is manufactured, be they 15% or 20% efficiency cells the process to turn them into panels and install them is the same.
  A 20% efficient will use 25% less material (frame, glass, etc.) to turn into a panel than and 25% less racking/labor to install. I don’t see this making the difference between “just $1″ and “a few dollars per watt”.
  - dynamo.joe
    
    But 38% is their design goal, which would mean you only need to install 40% of the panels of 15%eff cells.
    That seems like it oughta entail signifigant savings.
    - Bob_Wallace
      
      If they get that high, sure. But there’s a lot of space between 20% and 38%.
Anne

“their cost is just one dollar per watt to install”

This is a vague statement. Are they only talking about installation costs of the panels (labor + mounting frame)? Or the all-in price? Or BoS cost (=everything except the panels)?
CoBaja

Nano wires are stil quite expensive, but people could build diy, simple and dirt cheap solar panels using recycled pop-cans: http://solar.freeonplate.com/diy-how-to/DIY-solar-panels.htm