PHOTOVOLTAICS MAKING HEADWAY
Dr. Sylvain Marsillac, the newly recruited Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) associate professor, is certainly bringing Photovoltaics into center stage. His ECE department as well as the Applied Research Center (ARC) secured more than $2.3M with seven grants in the area of Solar Energy and Photovoltaics. Several of these grants involved his collaborators within ECE and ARC, namely Dr. Shirshak Dhali, Dr. Gon Namkoong, Dr. Helmut Baumgart, and Dr. Hani Elsayed-Ali.
Among the projects to be funded:
- - $1.1M from the Department of Energy to develop ultra-thin CIGS solar cells
- - $300k from the Department of Energy to develop new back contact for CdTe solar cells
- - $300k from the Department of Defense (Air Force) for a project on ultra-lightweight flexible solar cells
- - $303k from the Department of Defense (Air Force) for a project on new materials for high efficiency solar cells
- - $200k from Trabant Solar, in association with Siemens Inc., to develop a new tracking system to enhance the efficiency of solar energy conversion
- - $150k from Nippon Electric Glass, a Japanese glass company, to develop new high temperature glass substrates for solar cells application
- - $40k from Dominion Power, our local utilities company, to develop a Roof-top tracking photovoltaic system as a learning tool for engineering students
The first two grants from the Department of Energy are prestigious, and put ODU on the map of the significant contributors to the PV research in the US. Along with the Solar Decathlon House, ODU will be making a big solar splash.
Photovoltaicsis a method of generating electrical power by converting solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors that exhibit the photovoltaic effect. Photovoltaic power generation employs solar panels composed of a number of solar cells containing a photovoltaic material.