Photo by Living Off Grid
The Australian National University continues to be at the forefront of national and international solar research thanks to funding provided by the Commonwealth via the Australian Solar Institute (ASI). The Hon Martin Ferguson, Minister for Resources and Energy has launched the ASI Round Two Photovoltaic Core Project which will see ANU collaborating with Trina Solar, one of the largest manufacturer of solar cells worldwide, to build better, cheaper silicon solar cells. Project Leader Dr Daniel Macdonald from the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science said that the n-type silicon cells will be more affordable. ?Most solar cells today are made with silicon wafers which contain positively charged particles to carry the electricity, a material known as 'p-type' silicon. However, based on fundamental research conducted at ANU and other institutes, it is now clear that n-type silicon, which uses negatively charged particles, is a better alternative. 'In collaboration with Trina Solar, we will develop n-type silicon solar cells which use the same standard low-cost processing tools that are used for today's p-type cells. This will increase the efficiency of the solar cells from 18 to 20 per cent, without appreciably increasing the production costs.
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