Nearly 30% of incident sunlight is currently reflected off the surface of conventional solar panels, and further energy is lost inside the solar cell materials. Solar3D, Inc. is developing a breakthrough 3-dimensional solar cell technology to maximize the conversion of sunlight into electricity.
USA-based Solar3D says unlike traditional solar cells where sunlight passes through once, its 3D solar cell design uses micro-cells that trap sunlight inside, where photons bounce around until they are all converted into electricity.
Combining thin and thick film techniques, the structures will contain very thin absorbing regions designed to enhance charge carrier separation. Electron-hole pairs will travel short distances before reaching a contact wire where they will be extracted to produce current.
Where electrical contact wires run on the top of traditional solar cells and blocking sunlight, the Solar3D design uses a network of contact wires that run below the collectors, allowing the 3D solar cells to trap and utilize nearly 100% of the incident light.
The company’s initial goal is to construct low cost, high efficiency solar cell based the technology using silicon solar cells – the same material used in most solar panels. However, it says its technology can be used to create multi-junction cells with materials such as gallium arsenide to achieve efficiencies that may be greater than 50%.
Solar 3D’s management team includes Nadir Dagli, who has Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Dagli has been a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) since 1987.
