New Methods Slice Solar Power Costs
University of Utah mechanical engineers Dinesh Rakwal and Eberhard Bamberg watch as an electrified molybdenum wire cuts a thin wafer of germanium semiconductor, which is used in a solar power cells. Their new cutting technique promises to reduce the cost of the most efficient type of solar power cell.
New Method Cuts Waste in Making Most Efficient Solar Cells
Sept. 15, 2008 - University of Utah engineers devised a new way to slice thin wafers of the chemical element germanium for use in the most efficient type of solar power cells. They say the new method should lower the cost of such cells by reducing the waste and breakage of the brittle semiconductor.
The expensive solar cells now are used mainly on spacecraft, but with the improved wafer-slicing method, “the idea is to make germanium-based, high-efficiency solar cells for uses where cost now is a factor,” particularly for solar power on Earth, says Eberhard “Ebbe” Bamberg, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. “You want to do it on your roof.”
