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University of Texas scientist tries to speed up production of thin-film solar
University of Texas scientist tries to speed up production of thin-film solar
Korgel's team does it with spray-paint and an ink-jet printer
By Asher Price
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
In a glass cabinet in a third-floor lab in UT's Nano Science and Technology Building, a graffiti airbrush is a prop in an experiment that could change the future of solar technology.
A group led by University of Texas chemical engineering professor Brian Korgel has created an inklike concoction of light-absorbing material that can be spray-painted on a combination of plastic and metal to make more or less instant solar panels thinner than a sheet of paper.
The group's dream: to mass produce the solar patches on huge printing presses like those used by newspapers.
The thin-film technology could reduce the cost of putting a solar array on a roof from more than $20,000 to less than $2,000, Korgel said.
The experimental technology is one way innovators in Austin are trying to prepare for an alternative energy future.
The state already leads the nation in wind power, but despite its abundant sunshine, it lags behind many states in terms of solar power.
Korgel's patches now convert only 1 percent of the sunlight that hits them to electricity. To become commercially viable, they must convert at least 10 percent, he said.
The main competition might come from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
In March, federal scientists said they had created a thin-film solar cell with 19.9 percent efficiency.
Government and industry scientists are turning their attention to reducing costs and accelerating production time.
Money for Korgel's research comes from government grants and a major chemical company, which is paying for, among other things, lawyers to push the patents.
But Korgel, who has founded an unrelated start-up now headquartered in California's Bay Area, said a lack of lab space, a shallow labor pool and a lack of funding from the state make Austin a difficult place to establish a company.
"It's one thing to seed a company out of UT," he said, "but then the university is not going to be the one to take it to the next step."
asherprice@statesman.com
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Korgel's team does it with spray-paint and an ink-jet printer
By Asher Price
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
In a glass cabinet in a third-floor lab in UT's Nano Science and Technology Building, a graffiti airbrush is a prop in an experiment that could change the future of solar technology.
A group led by University of Texas chemical engineering professor Brian Korgel has created an inklike concoction of light-absorbing material that can be spray-painted on a combination of plastic and metal to make more or less instant solar panels thinner than a sheet of paper.
The group's dream: to mass produce the solar patches on huge printing presses like those used by newspapers.
The thin-film technology could reduce the cost of putting a solar array on a roof from more than $20,000 to less than $2,000, Korgel said.
The experimental technology is one way innovators in Austin are trying to prepare for an alternative energy future.
The state already leads the nation in wind power, but despite its abundant sunshine, it lags behind many states in terms of solar power.
Korgel's patches now convert only 1 percent of the sunlight that hits them to electricity. To become commercially viable, they must convert at least 10 percent, he said.
The main competition might come from researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
In March, federal scientists said they had created a thin-film solar cell with 19.9 percent efficiency.
Government and industry scientists are turning their attention to reducing costs and accelerating production time.
Money for Korgel's research comes from government grants and a major chemical company, which is paying for, among other things, lawyers to push the patents.
But Korgel, who has founded an unrelated start-up now headquartered in California's Bay Area, said a lack of lab space, a shallow labor pool and a lack of funding from the state make Austin a difficult place to establish a company.
"It's one thing to seed a company out of UT," he said, "but then the university is not going to be the one to take it to the next step."
asherprice@statesman.com
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