POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022 - 12

RENEWING THE PROMISE OF CLEAN ENERGY
PV TECHNOLOGIES
New Solar Technology Promises Improved
Performance, Cost Savings
A
new type of solar photovoltaic
(PV) cell is closer to widespread
commercialization
after
the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office awarded Solar Inventions a patent
for its Configurable Current Cells,
or C3, technology.
Solar Inventions on Nov. 17 announced
that with the U.S. recognition
in place, it will be moving toward finalizing
pending patents for the technology
in several other countries, including
China, India, and across Europe, encompassing
about 90% of the global
market for solar power equipment.
The Atlanta, Georgia-based company
in a news release Wednesday
said the C3 product " improves cell,
module, and system performance, "
and also " creates silver savings of up
to 12%, over U.S. $1 million in savings
per gigawatt at current silver prices. "
The group said its cells and panels
" can be made on existing PV factory
lines, without any new equipment or
materials. "
Dr. Ben Damiani, the company's
chief technical officer, recently made
presentations about the technology
at two international conferences: the
IEEE PVSC event in the U.S., and EUPVSEC
in Portugal. Damiani outlined
how the C3 technology increases the
cell-to-module ratio, effectively boosting
a solar module's performance.
Higher Efficiency
" The efficiency gain depends on the
size, " Damiani told POWER. " Initially
we're seeing a 0.1 to 0.2% increase
in performance, so a panel that was
23.1% goes to 23.2% efficiency because
of the higher voltage and additional
current-depending on the
amount of light that comes in, and
what your light spectrum is. Future
evolutions will continue to raise that
and continue to reduce the amount of
silver needed. "
Damiani also explained the science
behind the savings from the cost of
silver used in the manufacturing process.
" For example, a 9 busbar PERC
[passivated emitter and rear contact]
solar cell would save approximately
$1 million in silver per gigawatt of
production, while improving performance
by 2-3 watts per panel for an
additional $1-2 million worth of power
gains, " Damiani said. " With the industry
shipping almost 200 GW of solar
cells per year, C3 has the potential for
$400 million to $600 million in annual
industry-wide impact. "
Silver is the most electricity-conducting
metal on the planet, and is
also a light metal, making it an important
part of PV systems, especially
those on rooftops. Solar companies
turn silver into a paste, which is then
loaded into each silicon wafer in a
solar panel. When sunlight reaches
a panel, silicon sets electrons free.
Silver carries electricity through a current,
reaching a building or battery
for storage.
The price of silver has risen dramatically
during the coronavirus pandemic,
to heights not seen since 2013, and
is currently trading at about $25 per
ounce-up from about $15 an ounce
in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic.
Cell
Architecture
Damiani is a longtime inventor in the
solar and semiconductor sectors, including
during previous stints at Suniva
and Intel. Damiani said he discovered
he could create multiple " lanes " or
subcells on a single wafer by electrically
dividing each cell during the metalization
process, effectively creating a
new cell architecture and providing a
path for multiple innovations beyond
C3.
" I thought about it for years and
investigated it, and then I teamed up
12 Supplement to POWER & RE+ 2022
with Bill Nussey on Solar Inventions
and started building prototypes in December
2017, " Damiani told POWER.
Damiani co-founded Solar Inventions
with Nussey, now the company's CEO,
and Gregg Freishtat, chief commercial
officer, in January 2018.
Damiani described the technology
in a 2020 white paper, " Introducing
resistively bounded subcells: The
lowest-cost method of increasing PV
efficiency while improving safety and
energy production. "
Nussey, founder of the Freeing
Energy project, a group working to
accelerate global adoption of renewable
energy, said Solar Inventions'
" global IP [intellectual property] portfolio
is coming together. This patent
opens the door for us to move forward
on joint ventures with key partners
in areas with large-scale cell and
module manufacturers, such as India,
China, Southeast Asia, the EU, and
the U.S. We've begun discussions
with potential partners in all of these
regions. "
Said Freishtat: " We expect these
partnerships to develop a stream of
new inventions and IP that will be coowned
with our partners, and marketed
in those regions and worldwide by
Solar Inventions. We expect our joint
venture partners will share in a substantial
portion of all licensing revenue
in their region. " Freishtat, a longtime
technology executive, is co-founder
and partner of Greenprint Capital, a
company that facilitates investment
into clean energy infrastructure projects.
DOE
Prize Winner
Solar Inventions' work was recognized
by the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) in
2019; C3 was part of the DOE's first
American-Made Solar Prize contest
for innovative technologies. Solar Inventions
won a first-place award in the
POWER and RE+ Tech Supp September 2022

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