Solar Technologies – Page 19 – TechConnect Briefs

Characterization of Microcrystalline and Amorphous Thin Film Silicon Devices with Raman Spectroscopy

Wall M., Hodkiewicz J., Thermo Fisher Scientific, US

Raman spectroscopy is highly sensitive to even slight changes in morphology of highly symmetrical, covalently bonded materials making it an ideal technique to characterize Silicon films. Furthermore, Raman spectroscopy is relatively insensitive to glass making [...]

CIGS PV Power Enhancement from Photonic Crystal Fiber Concentrators

Shepard S., Carver G., Louisiana Tech University, US

Two of the most promising means of reducing the cost per kilowatt of photovoltaic (PV) systems are: 1) to reduce the cost – which includes recent progress made in CIGS; and/or 2) to increase the [...]

Synthesis and characterization of Silver doped TiO2 nano films for

Murty V.V.S., Choudhry R.J., Deshore V., Government Autonomous Model Holkar Science College, IN

Utilization of Solar Energy is based on the ability of semiconductor particles to function as photo catalysts by promoting various oxidation and reduction reactions under sunlight. For the improvement of its catalytic capability, Silver doped [...]

Process-Fluid-Lubricated Polycrystalline Diamond Bearings for application in Marine Hydrokinetic Machines

Sexton T.N., Cooley C.H., US Synthetic Corp., US

Polycrystalline diamond thrust and radial bearings have proven to be successful in harsh environments, such as those encountered in down-hole oil and gas drilling tools. They are particularly well suited for applications where a harsh [...]

Offshore Renewable Resources – Improving the Cost-of-Energy

Roznitsky S., HighSeasWind, US

The U.S. has an abundance of wind and wave offshore resources suitable for industrial-scale power generation, the best resources are in deep waters. Cost-of-Energy (COE) is defined as Production Facility’s Total Costs (C) divided by [...]

Offshore Wave and Wind Together – Afloat

Brown N.A., Float Incorporated, US

Offshore wind and wave power are, or can be, remarkably complimentary. Given a stable floating platform to share, important economies of renewable power production and storage are possible. (A figure shows how wind and wave [...]

Mobile Wave Energy Harvesting System

Sharon A., Briggs J., Wirz H., Boston University - Fraunhofer CMI, US

Conventional approaches to harvesting energy from ocean waves and currents suffer from at least three major drawbacks: 1) expensive underwater power transmission cables, 2) storm damage susceptibility, and 3) energy output is not delivered at [...]

Microwave-mediated Pyrolysis of Biomass

Gronnow M.J., Budarin V.L., Fan J., Shuttleworth P.S., MacQuarrie D.J., Clark J.H., Green Chemistry Centre of Excellence, UK

Biomass can be seen as the oil well of the future; a renewable, widely distributed resource that should be increasingly exploited for the production of heat and power, liquid fuels as well as chemicals and [...]

Catalytic Subcritical Hydropyrolysis of Waste Biomass into Gasoline Range Hydrocarbons

Tungal R., Shende R.V., South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, US

Catalytic aqueous phase reforming (CAPR) of the biomass has a great potential for the production of H2 and hydrocarbons. This study reports synthesis of novel nanoscale bifunctional catalytic material and its utilization in CAPR process [...]

The characterization of p-GaAs/i-InGaAsN/n-GaAs hetero-junction solar cell with various DMHy flow rates

Wu T.H., National Cheng Kung University, TW

Since the high efficiency tandem solar cell sturcture has been reported, the conversion efficiency of triple-junction solar cells would achieve 40% with concentrator. To further enhance the conversion efficiency of solar cells, the fourth-junction is [...]