Heliotactic Press

Interdisciplinary exploration of solar energy conversion, photovoltaics, and integrative design, and scientific philosophy.

Einstein did NOT discover photovoltaics 2010/04/11

Filed under: Solar Education,solar energy — nanomech @ 10:16
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Two words. Very similar etymologies, yet very different meanings: photoelectric and photovoltaic. With the web the way it is (amorphous and shifting), and sources of information getting mingled between similar vocabularies, there needs to be a point of clarification regarding Albert Einstein’s role in the specific realm of photovoltaics. I will say it again: Albert Einstein did not discover photovoltaics, in theory or in practice. He was, however, instrumental in allowing other scientists to perceive the process by his implementation of the concept of the photon.

In 1887, Heinrich Hertz observed that metal electrodes (with a certain electrostatic bias) separated by a small space of air would “spark” across the gap more easily with the addition of ultraviolet electromagnetic waves (which we now also call photons) incident upon the electrode surfaces. In fact, the photons had sufficiently high energy to cause electrons bound within the metal to be ejected from the confines of the metal into space, then jumping to the next nearest metal at the opposite electrode. This observation was expanded by a number of well-recognized experimentalists including J. J. Thomson (1899) and Nikola Tesla (1901). Tesla even submitted and received a patent to charge a capacitor using a metal plate (US685957). This was an example of an optoelectronic effect being used to convert photons to usable electrons, but it is not the photovoltaic effect.

Now where does Einstein come in? Oh yes, in 1905 his paper On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light was published. This paper (re-)established the concept of electromagnetic radiation as quanta of photons, giving great weight and validity to the idea that a mass-less photon (of a known frequency) could exchange energy with an electron to promote the charged species to an excited state. Later, in 1915, Robert A. Milliken demonstrated experimentally how this exchange was possible. Einstein’s explanation was the attribution for his 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics.

What about the photovoltaic effect? Up until now, we have explained the photoelectric effect wherein the energy from a photon is applied to eject a bound electron into space, then becoming a free electron until it was recaptured by a conductive surface. What if we wanted something more subtle? What if we wanted to absorb a photon of sufficient energy (lower than the ejection energy) to promote a low energy photon into an open shelf of energy (an orbital or band) that is still bound to the attractive force from the atomic nuclei? Such a process, absorbing light and maintaining the excited electron within the material of excitation is precursor to the photovoltaic effect. The final step for the complete photovoltaic effect is to separate excited charge carriers to electrically conductive electrodes (ohmic contacts). The photovoltaic effect was actually observed earlier than the sibling effect of ejecting electrons. In 1839, a 19-year old Alexandre-Edmund Becquerel observed a photocurrent (no sparks here, just electronic power) from light-sensitive electrodes immersed in an acidic solution. The electrodes were platinum metal, coated with AgCl or AgBr–silver salts much like our older photographic film materials. Then in 1877, Adams and Day published their work on selenium metal immersed in an electrolyte bath, and exposed to light. This was followed by C. E. Fritts in 1883, who compacted a selenium photovoltaic cell into a flat plate using gold leaf and brass electrodes.

Perhaps some of the real confusion cropped up fifty years later, when L. O. Grondahl observed the photovoltaic effect in copper/copperoxide materials, but titled his 1933 research: The copper-cupprous-oxide rectifier and photoelectric cell. Yep, there is that problem with similar etymologies. Even in their 1954 paper from Bell Labs research, authors Chapin, Pearson, and Fuller used the more generic title of photocell, and would term their device a photobattery in everyday speak (A new p-n junction photocell for converting solar radiation into electrical power). In fact, the term photobattery is a perfectly accurate way to describe the devices using the photovoltaic effect. I would even venture that a photocapacitor is a more likely descriptor for Tesla’s 1901 device in comparison.

In summary:

Photoelectric Effect:

  1. Absorb light (photons)
  2. Excite electrons sufficiently to eject them from their bound state (about nuclei) to a free, kinetic state in space.

This describes an energy transformation: from potential energy to kinetic energy.

Photovoltaic Effect:

  1. Absorb light (photons)
  2. Excite charge carriers sufficiently to promote them from a lower energy bound state to a higher energy bound state.
  3. Separate charge carriers to ohmic contacts.

This describes a different energy transformation: from low potential energy to high potential energy.

**Note: For an excellent review of photovoltaic devices and early observations (as well as the best PV text on-line), please visit Chapter 6 of Honsberg and Bowden’s PVCDROM. I use it in my classes on Design of Solar Energy Conversion Systems and Advanced Photovoltaics.

 

Google SketchUp: Where is the Sun? 2010/01/24

Filed under: Solar Education,solar energy — nanomech @ 11:49
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As a researcher and educator in solar conversion systems design, I am sharing my concern about Google SketchUp for professional use and energy analysis. Through a multi-week correspondence with an unnamed member of the Google SketchUp team, I have learned that the team is unaware of the accuracy of the algorithms underlying their ShadowInfo and ShadowInfoObserver classes, and do not have the resources to collaborate to attribute source documents to the error in their models. Simply put, they do not know if the sun is where it should be for a given location/time on Earth. These core algorithms relate the solar Equation of Time (describing the difference between apparent solar time and mean solar time) to latitude position, solar declination, solar azimuth, and hour angle. If you and your colleagues find this of interest, I would ask you to contact the SketchUp team directly (sketchup-help@google.com) with common concern, as I have not had success in encouraging SketchUp to make this important information transparent to the user base. Arguably, it would not be a challenging problem to solve, if the user base could simply see the “snippets” of geometry algorithms. However, I am concerned that there may be legal consequences to those who use SketchUp for professional applications (such as your own firm), should SketchUp be found to be in significant error when used to prove or disprove data.

From the Google SketchUp Team:

“We’ve done some investigation over the weekend, but we don’t actually have any more information to provide. We don’t have a particular reference document, paper, or source for our algorithms, so there isn’t a location to which we could point you for reference. Furthermore, the solar calculations were implemented early on in SketchUp’s development, and the people who initially worked on them are no longer with the company.”

Thank you for considering this unusual failing in an otherwise highly useful software piece.

Dr. Jeffrey R. S. Brownson
Dept. of Energy & Mineral Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University
nanomech@psu.edu

 

Sustainability and Technology in the Habitable Environment 2010/01/02

Filed under: education,Environmental Technology,sustainability — nanomech @ 14:31
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In the USA, we  divide energy demand into four economic sectors: Industry, Transportation, Commercial Buildings, and Residential Buildings. By combining the Commercial and Residential sectors, we observe that 41% of our energy demand is derived from building environments (the habitable environment), and about 40% of our carbon emissions are derived from buildings. Additionally, Americans have been observed to spend 90% of their time indoors. This is a big chunk of power that we can work to make more sustainable! So what is sustainable energy technology, and why should we even use it?

Energy Flows (supply and demand) USA 2008

As seen in the figure, the majority of our energy supply has been from unsustainable sources (with the loose exception of hydropower). At some point I would like to provide a similarly enhanced figure that demonstrates the energy losses associated with supply and demand (for the curious: see here).

In terms of energy technology development and entrepreneurship, we may establish four generic divisions: energy supply, demand, storage/capacity, and usage. But energy technology development has a historical balance to be made with design, planning, policy and regulation. So why should we pursue sustainable energy solutions at all, or what is our sustainability ethic? Sustainability in planning and international policy can be addressed using the 1987 UN document Our Common Future (derived from the 1987 Brundtland Commission). It’s not the end-all document, but I would call it a good start for discussion and a must read for those learning about the history of modern sustainable energy solutions. The following list of general principals, rights and responsibiliteis comes directly from the Brundtland Commission report, Annexe 1:

Fundamental Human Right

1. All human beings have the fundamental right to an environment adequate for their health and well being.

Inter-Generational Equity

2. States shall conserve and use the environment and natural resources for the benefit of present and future generations.

Conservation and Sustainable Use

3. States shall maintain ecosystems and ecological processes essential for the functioning of the biosphere, shall preserve biological diversity, and shall observe the principle of optimum sustainable yield in the use of living natural resources and ecosystems.

Environmental Standards and Monitoring

4. States shall establish adequate environmental protection standards and monitor changes in and publish relevant data on environmental quality and resource use.

Prior Environmental Assessments

5. States shall make or require prior environmental assessments of proposed activities which may significantly affect the environment or use of a natural resource.

Prior Notification, Access, and Due Process

6. States shall inform in a timely manner all persons likely to be significantly affected by a planned activity and to grant them equal access and due process in administrative and judicial proceedings.

Sustainable Development and Assistance

7. States shall ensure that conservation is treated as an integral part of the planning and implementation of development activities and provide assistance to other States, especially to countries of the global South, in support of environmental protection and sustainable development.

General Obligation to Cooperate

8. States shall cooperate in good faith with other States in implementing the preceding rights and obligations.

Looking over this entire document, I find interesting underpinnings driving sustainable planning and design of energy flows. It is interesting that the argument here is much more than just a caution against climate change and loss of habitable space. Wow: inter-generational equity and ecosystem maintainence–heavy topics to consider. Additionally, the concept of Managing the Commons in Ch. 10 suggests an international valuation of common human resources that fall outside of national jurisdictions, but have critical importance due to ecological and economic interdependence.

And back to the technologies for the habitable environment:

For sustainable energy applications, an energy supply technology might take the form of algae-based biodisel production, wind power, or solar hot water (we typically call this division renewable energy). An energy demand technology addresses the management of the demand side of energy use (we typically term this division energy efficiency), specifically including efficiency in appliances and HVAC systems, weatherization of homes, and new lighting designs. Energy storage and capacity technologies are often lumped with other divisions, but they do include a significant share of tech: water tanks, phase change materials embedded in the walls, green roofs, batteries and ultracapacitors, and even the electrical power grid (to a certain extent). Finally, energy usage technologies are some of the more interesting developments of late, as they take advantage of modifying human behavior, just like the “Prius (or Honda Civic) effect”. Humans work well when given feedback (it’s like a game!), and much of our energy Demand (in the generic sense of the figure above) can be dramatically shifted toward reduction due to smart systems that inform you instantaneously as you consume energy. We used an amazing system for live monitoring by the company Noveda for the Natural Fusion home in the 2009 Solar Decathlon–very very cool technology.

We often hear the popular media discussion on buzz terms of “renewables” and “energy efficiency”. I have found that the innovation in the field of sustainable energy for the habitable environment is developing sufficiently to merit this new subdivision of scope. Perhaps this will even develop new discussions to refine the divisions for useful application in industry and transportation sectors.

 

Educational Talk on Solar Energy 2009/09/13

Filed under: PV Education,Solar Education — nanomech @ 08:37
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Solar hot water systems, and the technologies that make them possible, hold crucial pieces of information relevant to developing advanced photovoltaic systems. For the most part, photovoltaics are still just “flat plate collectors”, collecting thermal heat in addition to electricity. This talk by solar historian, John Perlin, offers an important glimpse of the historical context of solar energy technologies.

Video interview provided by Eon’s Video Blog on bliptv.

Books on solar energy by Perlin:

A Golden Thread: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology (1980) Ken Butti and John Perlin (foreward by Amory Lovins). Cheshire Books, Palo Alto.

From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity (1999, 2002) John Perlin. (Aatec Press) Harvard University Press.

 

Innovation and Rules of Thumb 2009/08/03

Filed under: education,interdisciplinary research,Uncategorized — nanomech @ 07:49
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Why are Rules of Thumb (RoT) useful for certain occasions, why do they tend to lose meaning with time, and when should they be discarded for new horizons? We find RoT to be historically and regionally limiting because they have been integrated within the context of the whole system for a relevant interval in time. Never forget the importance of the environment and the system, as RoT are embedded within the environment that surrounds them! RoT are shorthand transmissions that assist our memories for annual cycles or infrequent events, and provide an initial story for further expansion of lore. As such, RoT have a shelf life when misused: typically devolving over repeated transmissions (that do not expand with lore) such that they lose contact to the original environment that gave them meaning in the first place. We are often presented with RoT that are so general and uninformative that they may actually be of limited use to the challenge at hand. Worse yet, RoT may actually stunt or inhibit our ability to transform a new context into a useful fresh application.

Lore: all the facts and traditions about a particular subject that have been accumulated over time through education or experience.

The source of all RoT on the web!

“A rule of thumb…is an easy-to-remember guide that falls somewhere between a mathematical formula and a shot in the dark. A farmer, for in­stance, knows to plant his corn when oak leaves are the size of squirrels’ ears. An economics profes­sor knows from sad experience that inviting more than 25 percent of the guests for a univer­sity dinner party from the economics depart­ment ruins the conversation. Rules of thumb are a kind of tool. They help you appraise a problem or situation. They make it easier to consider the subtleties of the topic at hand; they give you a feel for a subject.

A hundred years ago, people used rules of thumb to make up for a lack of facts. Modern­ day rule of thumbing is rooted in an overabundance of facts. The average person, confronted with the Internet’s oceans of data and multiple overlapping Ph.D. dissertations, often is as perplexed as a pioneer chemist trying to whip up a little gun­powder without a formula. A pilot in a tight spot doesn’t ask questions about aeronautical en­gineering; a pilot in a tight spot asks “now what?” There are times when you don’t need to know the best way to do something. These are times for ballpark figures, for knowing what you probably can get away with.”

 

What to do with solar in the economic turndown 2009/03/21

Filed under: education,energy,photovoltaics,Solar Decathlon,solar energy — nanomech @ 10:24

As you may have noted, I am in the process of developing this blog that extends beyond (Nanomech in Photovoltaics). The reasons? First, the Sun allows for a plethora of possibilities, and I wanted to work with a bigger canvas! Second, I feel the need to open up the blog to entries from guests, to create a diverse perspective of all things tied to solar (including energy efficiency, green roofs, passive solar design, energy recovery and cogeneration). And third, and most frankly, PV is the most expensive solar investment for the individual. In this economic depression, we need to know what technologies are affordable and offer the highest rewards for the initial investment. I’ve been told again and again that solar hot water is the most obvious, no-brainer tactic in the solar arsenal. It’s cheap (< $6000 for everything), it’s easy, and by replacing/complementing your electric or gas (or fuel oil) water tank (with federal and state incentives), payback is often less than 5 years.

My recent experiences have included teaching solar energy conversion, developing tools for solar resource assessment, and leading a great team to design, build, and operate a solar-powered house (www.solar.psu.edu). From these endeavors, it was obvious that it would be beneficial to pass along the great breadth of solar energy conversion possibilities.

So, I still hope to post on photovoltaics (still my favorite, and I am a materials researchers in PV), but expect to see more on diverse topics in the future.

 

Educational Links on Photovoltaics and Solar Energy 2009/01/05

Filed under: PV Education,Solar Education — nanomech @ 21:35
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Where would be the best place to get an update of solar energy conversion, and photovoltaics in particular? That would be in a classroom, where you can ask questions and sort through the multiple topics of materials, sources of photovoltaic action (drift, diffusion, electrokinetic phenomena), and the difference between a cell, module, and an array. You would also be able to see that PV is only a tiny segment of an otherwise broad portfolio of technologies to make use of the sun for heating, cooling, making chemicals, making electricity from turbines, and so on. I offer two core courses at Penn State that deal with these subjects, but obviously there is a larger audience out there that would like information. Thankfully, we will be producing a web-based course dealing with photovoltaics, but that will be about a year off.

Therefore, I would recommend two web-based books for the curious, right now! The first is an educational project that began as an international collaboration between the University of Delaware and the University of New South Wales, funded by an IGERT grant. The site is called Photovoltaics: Devices, Systems and Applications CD-ROM, and the authors are Christiana Honsberg and Stuart Bowden. This includes interactive diagrams, movie clips of the silicon manufacture process, and a good review of solar energy. You will need to download Shockwave from Adobe. Up until recently, the Shockwave addition did not work for Macintosh systems, so I was more hesitant at recommending the site. But now: go for it! You will be busy for weeks. Note that the site is dedicated to silicon devices, and will not provide a comprehensive description of thin film PV devices and the principles of operation. That being said, the site is a gem.

The second book is not as web savvy, but does contain fantastic fundamental information on solar energy conversion. The resource is Power from the Sun by by William B. Stine and Michael Geyer, at California State Polytechnic University in the USA and IEA SolarPACES in Spain. This text is more like the classic paper text by John Duffie and William Beckman: Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes,1 in which multiple solar energy conversion technologies are described.

There you go, solar energy enthusiasts! Go to school and get informed on solar energy. But if you are tied up with other things (like life), in the mean time do some winter reading and find out how much potential solar energy has as a sustainable technology!

1. Duffie, J. A.; Beckman, W. A. Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes. (3rd Ed.) 2006 John Wiley & Sons Inc, Hoboken, NJ, USA.

 

Photovoltaics: Levels of Irradiance 2009/01/05

Filed under: Environmental Technology,PV Science,Uncategorized — nanomech @ 21:27
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Let’s talk about light interacting with a semiconductor to yield electricity. Today’s topic is to distinguish between low levels of irradiance and high levels of irradiance. Effectively, we are asking for an estimate of the concentration of photons being delivered from a high energy source to a low energy absorber/collector.

When we say low levels of irradiance, we are estimating a scale of light concentration that is typical of the diffuse and direct component of unconcentrated “global” or “total” solar radiation, or the light from a standard incandescent lamp or fluorescent lamp. This could be anywhere <1000 mW/cm2, or 10x the sun’s concentration (remember, this is just a crude scale, not a hard and fast rule–don’t take this back to your classes). The standard for testing solar cells inside the earth’s atmosphere is called Air Mass 1.5 Global (AM 1.5G), because the light from the sun passes through 1.5 lengths of a generic Earth’s atmosphere to generate a convenient irradiance of ~ 100 mW/cm2. Low levels of light such as this provide a sufficient number of photons (packets of light) to excite the electrons into an unoccupied level of energy (the conduction band). However, the population distribution of the majority carriers does not change significantly. That’s okay: the key player in a photovoltaic absorber is the minority carrier (n-type semiconductor: a hole; p-type semiconductor: an electron), and the population of minority carriers does change significantly with light absorption. Minority carrier transport gets the job done, in fact, because they are the limiting rate in the absorber reactor. You can find out more about charge carriers and carrier transport in the Photovoltaics CDROM from Honsberg and Bowden, Chapter 3 (although it doesn’t work completely for Macs, sadly)

What is high irradiance? You’ve heard the warnings about strong lasers pointing into others’ eyes? A laser is a coherent, collimated light source (the photons’ waves are in phase and heading the same direction), such that the photons can be very concentrated. If sufficient numbers of photons are absorbed by a semiconductor, the population of photoexcited charge carriers can be much greater than the majority carriers, and there a population inversion occurs, leading to stimulated emission (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation).

The photons from light bulbs and suns are neither coherent nor collimated, although they can be concentrated significantly to potentially cause a population inversion and stimulated emission (yes, there is the possibility for a solar laser). However, before that stage there are other phenomena that occur, making it a bit more complicated.

Concentrating cells allow an increased flux of photons to the smaller receiver/absorber using a larger aperture to collect the solar light. The geometric concentration ratio is the ratio of the area of an aperture to that of the absorber (C=Aapt/Aabs).1,2 For a perfect concentrator (as a point on the surface of Earth), the radiation from the Sun on the aperture-receiver assembly is only a fraction of the total radiation emitted by the Sun, given a half-angle subtended by the Sun of 0.27°. Assuming a blackbody, the absorber would have a maximum theoretical concentration ratio of 45,000 (for a circular concentrator) or 212 (for a linear,trough concentrator).1 The higher the concentration,the higher the photon flux (including increasing temperature),and the more precise the optics of the collector must be to deliver. This is an extreme energy flux for any semiconductor. Under high illumination levels, one will observe a decrease in minority carrier lifetimes and related diffusion path lengths. However, 45.6% of the suns power is contained in the infrared band (the part that makes things “hot”). Thermally, an imaging concentrator (C>> 10; analogous to camera lenses) can produce temperatures from 500 to 1500 °C at the absorber.2 This increased temperature can be used to drive thermal work (steam generation) or thermophotoelectrochemical reactions for concentrating solar power (CSP, not to be confused with CPV), but is not necessarily good for photovoltaic performance. High temperatures tend to decrease the efficiency of a photovoltaic device. In particular, this is why members of the microelectronics industry are getting into the concentrating photovoltaics field (CPV)–they know how to cool superhot microelectronics, and will do the same with CPV devices.

It is so interesting to see how this is all a great spread of possibilities that one can derive from our nearest fusion reactor!

Text sources:
1. Rabl, A. Active Solar Collectors and Their Applications. 1985 Oxford University Press, New York

2. Duffie, J. A.; Beckman, W. A. Solar Engineering of Thermal Processes. (3rd Ed.) 2006 John Wiley & Sons Inc, Hoboken, NJ, USA.

3. Andreev, V. M.; Grilikhes, V. A.; Rumyantsev, V. D. Photovoltaic Conversion of Concentrated Sunlight. 1997, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, England.

 

Solar Jobs = Green Collar Jobs! 2008/12/28

Filed under: industry,photovoltaics,solar power,sustainability — nanomech @ 10:13
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As a researcher and instructor dealing with solar energy conversion, I am acutely aware of the immediate need (or ASAP) for a smart, flexible labor force–capable and trained to install and maintain our new solar technologies. Solar energy will be the heart of the new green collar job sector, as we will need to deploy PV and solar hot water technologies to residential and commercial buildings for a carbon-constrained future.

Analogy:
I want to use the familiar example of technologies for indoor air quality and thermal comfort: HVAC systems (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning). Think about how many air conditioning units are now an integral part of buildings in the country. Consider the labor force that is required for AC/heating installation, duct installation, monitoring and control systems (e.g. thermostats), and maintenance or repairs (hint: it is a huge industry). Now think about how little you think about these systems (because they just work). There is similar (perhaps even greater) potential for green collar jobs–earning a paycheck and helping society and the environment!

The Very Near Future:
Green collar jobs for solar technologies are here! Training is in full gear in states like California, New Jersey, and Florida, and is ramping up in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. At Penn State, we are already working on a training course for PV installation, as well as an upper level college course in solar energy technology design.

Additional reading: NYT article on PV installers as the new wave of green collar jobs.

 

Solar technologies are really quite diverse 2008/12/25

Filed under: education,energy,interdisciplinary research,photovoltaics,solar,sustainability — nanomech @ 10:38
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In preparing for my annual Spring course “Design of Solar Energy Conversion Systems”, I am reminded of just how many diverse technologies can be derived from our nearest large-scale fusion reactor. I will make exceptions to the obvious: horticulture and wind energy are derived from the sun too.

Here are some ideas beyond PV and concentrating PV (CPV):

  1. Passive/Active Solar Water Heating Systems (in your showers, dishwashers, heating your floors)
  2. Commercial/Distributed Space Heating Systems (using Solar Walls, Phase Change materials, Pebble-bed hot air storage).
  3. Solar Cooling (Yes! you can cool with the sun and heat pumps, dessicants, refrigeration cycles).
  4. Solar Industrial Process Heat and Solar Ponds (Do you own a mine or a refinery? Look into ways that you could dramatically reduce your energy bills!)
  5. Solar Thermal Power Systems (Also called Concentrating Solar Power–CSP–this is the technology with the best odds at being the next wave of electric power from the sun).
  6. Don’t forget solar chemistry (not just growing plants) to make hydrogen and other fuels!

Solar is very close to breaking out. Why not invest in solar tech?

 

 
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