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Solar Cells Crystallized Out of Molten Silicon

Posted by kdawson on from the news-to-us dept.

Hot Toddy sends in a link to a story up on Digital World Tokyo about a more efficient process for manufacturing solar cells. It involves dropping molten silicon from a height of 14 m; surface tension causes tiny spheres 1 mm in diameter to form; the silicon crystallizes in the 1.5 seconds of free-fall. The spheres can be mounted on surfaces of any shape. They capture light from many directions, increasing their solar efficiency. Kyosemi is the company behind the Sphelar technology. Some of the pages on this site date to 2003 and the status of most listed Sphelar products is either "under development" or "engineering sample is available."

2 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Details needed. by JavaManJim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Missing from the story are important and obvious details.

    1. Electrical output efficiency compared to a correctly aimed flat solar panel.

    2. How are tiny silicon balls connected to produce electricity?

    Any other questions, please chip in.

    Thanks, Jim

  2. Re:ATS / Spheral Solar Power by bombastinator · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This discussion bring back to me an ancient memory of myself reading, I believe a "Popular Science" magazine blurb in the school library when I was a little kid. This memory is really old, like Madonna wearing 10 crucifixes at a time old.

    The article was about a system that used little silicon spheres set onto dish shaped depressions pressed into a piece of tinfoil. The individual cells looked like an orange in a shallow cereal bowl. (but, you know, lots and lots smaller.) The dish acted as a solar reflector thereby making the effective efficiency higher for a given amount of pure silica. It produced less electricity per square inch than equivalent conventional cells, but it's total cost was supposed to be lower.

    IIRC The material proved be a dud for many reasons. It was overly delicate, they had a serious problem with reliably attaching the spheres to the aluminum, an when they finally got it going the actual efficiency numbers were far lower than they were predicting.

    I mark this as one of those ideas that crop up every now and again when it's been long enough for people to forget that it was stupid the last time.