solar energy – TechConnect Briefs

Solar battery program in Austria – innovative solutions for increasing solar coverage

Egger C., OO Energiesparverband, AT

Upper Austria is one of Austria’s nine federal states with a population of 1.4 million. It located in the northern part of the country, bordering Germany and the Czech Republic. Since the mid-90s, the government [...]

Harvesting light energy with optical rectennas

Reynaud C., Duché D., Palanchoke U., Dang F-X., Patrone L., Le Rouzo J., Escoubas L., Gourgon C., Charaï A., Alfonso C., Margeat O., Ackermann J., Balaban S., Simon J-J., Aix Marseille University, FR

As predicted by Schockley and Queisser in the 60’s, the photoconversion phenomenon involved in mono junctions solar cells has an upper limit of 33% [1]. Other concepts, such as high efficiency tandem solar cells designed [...]

Heat powered water pump for reverse osmosis desalination

Glushenkov M., Bhosale R., Kumar A., AlMomani F., Kronberg A., Qatar University, QA

Reverse osmosis (RO) is one of the most widely employed technologies for water desalination. A drawback of this technology is high consumption of electricity by electric motors used for high-pressure water pumping. Energy consumption can [...]

Light Trapping in Solar Cells Using Nanostructured Reflectors: A Responsivity-Based Model Applied to Waveguide Mode Matching

Shahriad T., Shepard S.R., Louisiana Tech University, US

Although theoretically predicted that periodic photonic nanostructures can outperform the pseudo random structures in light trapping in solar cells, still the disputation regarding this topic is at the top. To enlighten the world about the [...]

Application possibility of Parabolic Through Solar Thermal Power Plant technology in North Cyprus

Cabacaba N., Dağbaşı M., Cabacaba Yenilenebilir Enerji Sistemleri, CY

The purpose of this work is to investigate whether the installation of a parabolic through solar thermal power plant technology for power generation is economically feasible in Turkish republic of North Cyprus (T.R.N.C). Since such [...]

Improved Nanophotonics Simulation Tools for Light-Trapping in Photovoltaics

Shepard S., Rubaiat F., Louisiana Tech University, US

Models used in the field of nanoparticle enhanced light-trapping have a wide range of complexity. Often one simply calculates how much power is absorbed in a particular region e.g., a layer of silicon withing a [...]

Periodic and Psuedo-Random Back-Reflector Nanoparticle Enhanced Light-Trapping in a Silicon Photovoltaic

Shepard S., Patel L., Rubaiat F., Louisiana Tech University, US

We consider the light-trapping enhancement of a silicon photovoltaic with conductive nanoparticles of various shapes, sizes and spacing as top-reflectors; used in conjunction with a periodic and a pseudo-random back-reflectors. The nanoparticles in the top-reflector [...]