ASTA Supporting Solar Cell Research at UA’s GREEN Center

This from the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority and writer Ashley Spurr…

Through NSF funding, ASTA is administering the GREEN Research Center at the University of Arkansas. This particular GREEN refers to renewable energy through solar cell technology. Read more from Ashley below. These folks are doing great work.

Liming Ji

U of A’s Green Center Targets Cheaper Energy with Solar Cell Technology

While solar energy is one of the leading sustainable energy options available today, it is not yet widely utilized by the general public because of the cost. The technology has to be cheaper and getting there is the goal of researchers at the Generating Renewable Energy with Efficient Nanoplasmonic Solar Cells (GREEN) Research Center, located at the University of Arkansas.

The Green Center, funded by a four million dollar grant from the National Science Foundation and administered by the Arkansas Science & Technology Authority, is backing some of the finest researchers in the country; researchers like Liming Ji, who came to the United States to pursue his PhD in Electrical Engineering.

Ji, whose research centers specifically on solar energy, is well aware of the challenges that lay ahead. “The cost per watt of solar energy is still three times more expensive than fossil fuels,” he explains. “The most expensive aspect of solar cell production is the preparation of the semiconductor material, which absorbs light energy and converts it into electrical energy.”

That semiconducting material represents 50% of the total cost to produce a solar cell. Because of this, researchers like Ji are directing their efforts toward improving that aspect of the cell.  Through the development of a smaller thin-film solar cell, which uses only 1% of conventional semiconductor materials, production cost is now significantly lower.

However, while the size reduction means reduced cost, it also limits the efficiency of light absorption.  Herein lies the cusp of Ji’s research:  to improve light absorption of thin-film semiconductor materials, while keeping the cost down.

To do this, the GREEN Center is utilizing a unique approach in which they place an engineered, complex metal structure on either the top or bottom of plasmonic solar cells, a type of thin-film solar cell.  When light particles hit the surface, they scatter across the cell, increasing the material’s exposure to light.  The longer the light passes through the semiconductor, the more absorption occurs.  This application mimics the increased efficiency of a thicker, conventional semiconductor without the added size or cost.

This cutting-edge solar technology is not yet ready for commercial implementation, but it does have promising development potential.  If successful, it could be the answer to the global energy crisis and global warming.

It could also boost Arkansas’s  economic well being with the creation of new high-tech, high-paying jobs, a fact not lost on researchers like Ji. While he plans to continue his research in solar energy after graduation, there is no guarantee he’ll be able to stay in Arkansas to do so. “Research is not limited by the researchers, but by their resources.”

till, whether he stays or goes, he is confident in the GREEN Center research and in the efforts of other Arkansas-based research projects.

“I have no doubt that the solar energy industry will only grow and thrive in this state.”

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