Solar Energy

Current-voltage characterization was carried out on dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with different photoanode areas ranging from 0.01 cm 2 to 1 cm 2 . Surprisingly, we found that the short-circuit current density and the efficiency of the solar cells increased exponentially as the photoaonode...

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs), while only having been designed about twenty years ago, are considered to be one of the most promising third-generation solar cell technologies among experts. One of the key features of DSSCs is a mesoporous, 10 micron layer of titania nanoparticles which acts as...

In this work, we present a multi-scale modeling approach for solar grade silicon production in fluidized bed reactor (FBR) by thermal decomposition of silane. The FBR process has been commercialized by several companies and promises to deliver poly-silicon at reasonable and stable price. Silane...

Present-day photovoltaic technology is predominantly based on the fabrication of solar cells from silicon. The cost and efficiency of silicon-based solar cells depend primarily on the growth rate and degree of single-crystallinity attained by the growth process. Traditional silicon crystal growth...

Alumina supports were coated with CoFe 2 O 4 using an alternating atomic layer deposition process. Nano-powder and hollow skeletal shells were used as supports. Large, high surface area polymer particles (~600µm, 43.5 m 2 /g) have been coated via ALD with several layers of alumina. The alumina...

A detailed model of a real solar thermal power plant has been built using a steady state power plant simulation software. The plant includes numerous parabolic trough collectors tracking the sun on a single axis. A heat transfer fluid flows in the focal line of the troughs collecting solar heat...

A three-dimensional steady state computational fluid dynamics model is developed for a solar receiver consisting of a reflective cavity with a windowed aperture enclosing an array of five tubes. The computational model couples radiative transfer with fluid flow, heat transfer, mass transfer, and...