Technology and Innovation
Through the concentration of sunlight (with our modules over
760 times), the active solar cell surface can be reduced to
a fraction compared to conventional solar modules. This offers
substantial cost savings due to reduced material consumption
on one hand. On the other hand high-quality and expensive
solar cells can be used, which, when concentrated, reach very
high efficiencies.
A further important aspect is the use of special materials
such as silicons, e.g. ELASTOSIL®. Further information
on the website of Wacker Chemie AG in the article "Solar
Power Moves in the Fast Lane".
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Slideshow
SolCon™ |
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The Sol*Con™-module development: Result of over 10 years
development
A team of highly-qualified scientists of the Ioffe-Institute
in St. Petersburg has worked for more than 10 years on the
improvements of the Sol*Con™-module. During the years
2000-2004 the Fraunhofer Institute for solar energy systems
(ISE) in Freiburg under the direction of Dr. Andreas Bett
took also part in the development.
Crucial for this successful development were high financial
subsidies in research and development by the Federal Ministry
for Environment, Nature preservation and Reactor Safety (BMU).
SolarTec International AG has set up an exclusive partnership
with the Ioffe Institute for the use of the attained results.
Independently and in addition to the development by Ioffe/Fraunhofer
SolarTec International AG has made further crucial development
and has protected them through several patent applications.
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Each wafer delivers up to
1,450 SolCon-high
efficiency solar cells. Sol*Con-cells have a
size of only 2x2 mm2 |
Impressive material savings:
0,02 m² Sol*Con-cells generate the same amount
of electricity as an approx. 10 m² Si-solar
modules. |
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Modules with up to 26 percent efficiency
Together with the Ioffe Institute in St. Petersburg, the
Telekom STV in Moscow, the ENE in Brussels as well as further
experienced partners, the R&D team of SolarTec International
AG is presently leading the Sol*Con-technology to an industrial
production stage. A pilot installtation with 1 KWp was set
up already in 2005 in Berlin-Adlershof.
Sol*Con-dual layer III-V solar cells with efficiencies of
approx. 24.5 percent were used in these plants. With these
cells a module efficiency of over 18,2 percent can be obtained,
resulting in a performance of 54Watts per module. To reach
a performance of 1 KWp approx. 18 modules are needed.
Our future goal: Solar modules with over 28 percent efficiency
With its partners SolarTec International AG intensively pursues
the advancement of both the solar cells and the entire system
under the conditions of large scale production. International
specialists assume that the triple- and quadruple-layer cells
have a very high potential.
SolarTec International AG researches together with its strategic
cooperation partners Ioffe-Institute in St. Petersburg and
various companies on more efficient chemico-physical processes
to enhance the efficiency of the conversion of sunlight into
electric current.
The SolCon-Solar Concentrator System
On a long-term basis, due to high energy consumption and investment
costs for new factories, a continuously sufficient production
of solar silicon material for wafers is rather unlikely. This
is also caused by the fact that silicon-wafers (receivers)
can only transform a fairly small range of the light spectrum.
Due to the quite big surface of flat-module-cells it is difficult
to apply higher-order semiconductor-materials with substantially
higher efficiency for the improvement of the exploitation
of light.
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However: If you concentrate the incident sunlight through
inexpensive optics on a small surface, then you need only
a small but efficient solar cell on this spot.
For such a focusing, fresnel lenses have been developed, which
enable a concentration of light at a factor of about 2,000
suns. The basic pattern of the development is shown on the
drawing on the left. If on the total area of a lens e.g. 10x10
cm (in Sol*Con-system already only 2x2 mm²) the arriving
sunlight is concentrated by factor 760, the light is focused
to a spot of approx. only 0.2 mm². Only on this small
spot you then need a solar cell. The resulting high cell-temperature
has to be dissipated immediately by a special construction.
The heating up of solar cells has to be avoided, as per 10
degrees (celsius) increase causes a loss of cell efficiency
by approx. 0.5%.
The researchers from the IOFFE-Institute in St. Petersburg
(development partner of SolarTec International AG) have developed
a special method. It dissipates the heat directly via a small
metal plate directly connected to the solar cell. This method
is highly efficient and realizeable at favorably low costs.
The total system costs in relation to the efficiency can therefore
be reduced by approx. 50%!
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