'Off-the-grid' solar cabin builder presents $12 innovation in solar power

PATRICK JODOIN, OTTAWA CITIZEN
More from Patrick Jodoin, Ottawa Citizen

Published on: April 16, 2016 | Last Updated: April 16, 2016 8:44 AM EDT

Algonquin College mechanical engineering student Joseph Dupuis — whose off-the-grid cabin went viral last spring — displays an early prototype of his solar tracking device in September 2015. PATRICK JODOIN / POSTMEDIA

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A local entrepreneur who made global headlines for his off-the-grid home last year is getting ready to unveil his latest unconventional solution in sustainable energy.

Algonquin College mechanical engineering student Joseph Dupuis was thrust into the spotlight last spring when the story of his solar-powered cabin made from shipping containers went viral.

This time around, Dupuis has assembled a team of students and built a prototype of what he said may be an innovation in solar technology: a solar tracking device that costs less to make than traditional solar power systems.

He was to present a working prototype at Algonquin’s Applied Research Day on Friday.

The difference between 29-year-old Dupuis’ device and a traditional system lies in its interior programming. The core concept of converting sunlight into electricity remains the same. 

“We came up with a tracking system that uses very, very inexpensive components,” said Dupuis. “These are components you can buy off the shelf at any electronics store.

“This technology that we developed is not new or groundbreaking in the sense that we invented new tech. However, we are using very affordable and simple components to achieve something that in the past would be too complex and costly for the average consumer.”

Instead of using expensive programmable logic controllers to track the sun — which sell for around $5,000, according to Dupuis, and require a strong understanding of electronics and complex software — his system uses a $12 microprocessing device called an Arduino, which can be purchased on Amazon. It can be programmed into a solar tracking device “with very basic understanding of coding and a simple computer,” said Dupuis.

“A fraction of the cost with still the same performance.”

Dupuis believes his device could make solar power more accessible to the average homeowner because of the potential cost difference. 

“We’re hoping to be able to market it as a very inexpensive way to make solar electricity,” he said.

Nick Harper of Barrie-based Home Energy Solutions believes that, at a glance, if Dupuis has invented a better “mouse-trap” in solar tracking — and his Arduino system does work — then such a cost-saving measure would be taken seriously in the solar energy industry. 

“If it’s a proven method that actually works,” said Harper, “then, in this industry, that always goes over well because most of the products are fairly expensive. If you can put something out into the market that brings the overall installation costs down, it could be a very good thing.”

Harper said in his 11 years in the renewable energy industry, he has seen many changes. Solar power went from a seasonal industry to year-round, for example.

Dupuis spent the past eight months working with a team of six electronic engineering students through Algonquin College’s Applied Research and Innovation to build and test a prototype. He said it has passed the tests and works.

The working prototype may be subject to further testing in the months to come. Dupuis is also in talks with Algonquin’s Perth, Ont. campus to install a full-scale, 20-panel model that will function as an electric car charging station.

“I really hope we can do the solar charging station,” said Kerry Milford, project manager of Applied Research and Innovation at Algonquin’s Perth campus. “We’d love to collaborate with Joseph and move forward on this.”

http://ottawacitizen.com/business/local-business/viral-off-the-grid-homeowner-returns-with-inexpensive-innovation-in-solar-power

Will Nanophotonics Save Solar Power Tech?

By Monica Heger

Posted 14 Apr 2016 | 18:00 GMT

Photo: iStockphoto

Nanophotonic technology could be the key to driving up the efficiencies of solar cells, making them feasible for widespread global deployment, say researchers from the FOM Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics(AMOLF) in the Netherlands.

The researchers published a review article in Science today describing current solar technologies and their limitations with regards to efficiency. Silicon-based solar, which is now considered a mature technology, occupies about 90 percent of the photovoltaic market, the researchers wrote. Yet, over the last few years, silicon solar cells have realized only modest gains in efficiency, stalling out in the 20-percent range.

But, according to lead author Albert Polman, advances in nanophotonics could help increase efficiencies for single-junction solar cells to 40 percent and higher, and do so cost effectively. In addition, he said, the technology could be compatible not just with silicon, but any type of solar material.

“It's really an upcoming field,” Polman says.

Efficiency and cost are the two main barriers on solar, and often, one is compromised for the sake of the other, Polman says. Using less material, such as for thin-film solar cells, brings costs down, but drags efficiency down right along with it.

Nanophotonics can be applied to existing solar technologies to harness light more effectively to increase efficiency.

When sunlight hits a solar panel, a good amount of the potential energy is lost due to it being reflected and scattered, Polman says. But nanostructures incorporated into a panel can re-direct the scattered light within the solar cell, “so that the light travels back and forth within the cell and is trapped inside it,” he adds.

In the research described in the Science article, Polman's team calculated that the theoretical maximum efficiency for a single-junction monocrystalline silicon solar cell is 29.4 percent, although the majority of commercial silicon panels are multicrystalline silicon, which have efficiencies of around 20.8 percent. But that’s on paper. Thus far, the highest recorded experimental efficiency is 25.6 percent for monocrystalline silicon and 21.3 percent for multicrystalline silicon.  

Other materials don't fare much better. Solar cells made from gallium arsenide (GaAs) have the efficiency record for single-junction solar cells at 28.8 percent, but GaAs solar cells are expensive and mostly have niche applications for space and satellite technology, Polman says.

Meanwhile, less expensive materials like thin-film silicon, dye sensitized titanium dioxide, and organic solar, have not broken the 12-percent-efficiency mark.

Nanophotonic technology can help, though. Using printing techniques, nanstructures with improved light harnessing properties can be printed onto silicon-based solar cells, he said. Alternatively, cells can be designed with nanstructures incorporated into them from the beginning.

Polman's lab is currently conducting small-scale experiments using a printing technique to layer nanoscale structures onto silicon solar panels, he says, and is in the midst of building larger panels to test in the field.

Incorporating such nanostructures into silicon cells could help silicon reach beyond its maximum efficiency, but even greater gains will be realized when solar cells are built that combine different materials with nanostructures.

For instance, perovskite has recently been touted as a promising material for solar cell technology; demonstrations have shown that it can reach efficiencies of 20 percent. Polman says that layering perovskite on top of silicon could provide further advantages since the two materials capture different wavelengths of light. Earlier this year, researchers demonstrated that layering perovksite on top of a silicon solar cell boosted the efficiency by 7.3 percent. 

Incorporating nanostructures could provide a further boost by allowing researchers to “engineer the scattering of the light in a clever way,” he says.

Looking ahead, Polman says he envisions solar cells that make use of not just two materials, but three or four materials with complementary properties and nanophotonics to make the most use of the incoming sunlight.

“Further advances in nanophotovoltaics will lead to enhanced photocurrents, and thus enhanced efficiency, in several different PV materials and architectures,” the AMOLF team wrote, enabling “very large-scale penetration into our energy system.”

 http://spectrum.ieee.org/energywise/green-tech/solar/will-nanophotonics-save-pv

MIT Breakthrough Boosts Solar Panel Output

April 12th, 2016 by Steve Hanley 

 

UPDATED: April 12 at 2:30 pm. See update below.

A solar panel is an amazing thing. Put it in the sunshine and it makes electricity for free. No emissions, no noise, just clean renewable power. Add a bunch of them and some battery storage and you can have your own microgrid right at home and never pay a utility bill again. What’s not to like? The problem is, a solar panel doesn’t always perform at peak efficiency. It needs to be aligned correctly to take maximum advantage of the sun’s rays.

Image credit: MIT

Lots of factors affect how much electricity a solar panel makes. Which way it faces, the angle of the roof its on, what latitude it is at, what season of the year it is, how cold it is outside, and weather that obscures the sun all factor in. Under adverse conditions, it may make so little electricity it costs more than its worth.

Researchers at MIT think they have a solution. Instead of laying solar panels flat on a roof, they tried arranging them in various ways. They burned through a ton of supercomputer time trying to find the optimal arrangement. In the end, they came up with a way of arranging them in three dimensional patterns. By placing them vertically in towers, power output is two to twenty times greater than what a single panel with the same footprint mounted on a roof would produce.

The best part it, the biggest boost came in situations where tradition arrangements are least effective — locations far from the equator, in winter months, and on cloudy days. The new findings, based on both computer modeling and outdoor testing of real modules, have been published in the journal Energy and Environmental Science.

The basic physical reason for the improvement in power output and for the more uniform output over time is that the vertical surfaces in a 3D structure can collect much more sunlight during mornings, evenings and winters, when the sun is closer to the horizon, says co-author Marco Bernardi, a graduate student at MIT.

The complete 3D systems costs more to manufacture that traditional flat roof systems, but that cost can be offset by the greater amount of electricity created. Going vertical may also make it possible to install photovoltaics in areas where there is not enough room for a horizontal system.  An accordion-like tower could be shipped flat and easily assembled on site says Professor Jeremy Grossman. A tower could be installed in a parking lot to provide a charging station for electric vehicles, he says.

Not everything that works in the lab is commercially viable in the real world. But the MIT research is a promising new technology that may help expand the number of places where clean, renewable solar power can be used effectively.

Photo credit: Allegra Boverman/MIT News

UPDATE: Apparently, I am not terribly well versed in this subject. Two commenters have suggested there are inaccuracies in the story. Rather than argue a point in a subject in which I am weak (ask me anything about maintaining an MGB, though, and I’m your guy), I am going to recommend you review the comments posted by JamesWimberley and KenC.

If I understand their argument (and each seems well versed and well intentioned) the MIT “breakthough” only applies if these 3D towers cover the same area of a given roof that conventional flat solar panels would cover in a typical PV system. I have amended to the last sentence of the third paragraph in accordance with what I take those comments to mean.

Please read the comments and make up your own mind. If I have mislead anyone, it was not intentional.

http://gas2.org/2016/04/12/mit-breakthrough-boosts-solar-panel-output/