7 March 2012

US Department of Energy grants $300,000 for CdTe PV research

Building on his funded work of last year (when he attracted more than $1m in grants for photovoltaics research), Sylvain Marsillac, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Virginia, recently received a $300,000 grant from the US Department of Energy (DOE).

The new grant, awarded through the DOE’s Foundational Program to Advance Cell Efficiency (F-PACE), involves research being performed on improving the efficiency of solar cells made from cadmium telluride (CdTe).

The material is deposited in thin-film form using high-vacuum deposition. Marsillac says that the latest DOE-funded research will develop ways to enhance the CdTe back-contacts by specifically looking at new materials based on chalcopyrite and delafossite structures. “Better connection means better voltage, which means better efficiency for the PV cells,” he adds.

Marsillac is partnering on the grant with two long-time alternative energy colleagues. One is at the University of Illinois (the lead institution on the grant). The other is at the University of Toledo (his previous institution, where Marsillac and his colleagues attracted more than $20m in funding for PV research).

Marsillac says that each of the three researchers involved in the latest grant has a different sub-speciality in the field of photovoltaic research. Marsillac’s speciality involves fabrication of the solar cells themselves (which he will be able to do more effectively at ODU in the soon-to-be-completed PV cleanroom being rebuilt in Kaufman Hall, home of the Batten College of Engineering and Technology).

Tags: CdTe PV

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