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Solar Power Made Easy
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Solar Power Made Easy How a solar cell works  You know that old solar energy kit your parents bought you for Christmas, well it could really take you places! A few years ago on her 10th birthday, a girl called Nicole Kuepper was given one. It changed her life and now she is 'People's Choice' and 'Young Leaders' Finalist in the 2008 Eureka Science Awards. Her research is developing technology that could bring electricity to 2 billion of the world’s poorest people. Getting-up in the morning and switching on the lights, the kettle and toaster is a simple everyday action for us, but for one third of the world's population, they don't have ANY electricity. Most impoversished countries are in the hottest areas so sun is plentiful. So solar power is a great idea, but not possible because photovoltaic panels are very expensive. In fact even for us in the western world, are too pricey to us. A solar cell  Nicole realised that if she could make this process cheaper and easier to produce then not only was this doing a lot to get solar power (a great renewable energy) more available, but it could also take electricity to people in the poorest, most remote parts of the world. She's spent the last two years researching an alternative manufacturing process and has designed and patented an affordable, simple and innovative photovoltaic device called the iJET Cell. Here's how a typical photovoltaic cell is made: First take one ultra-sterile laboratory, expensive parts and plenty of staff. A thin boron doped P-type (P for positive) silicon wafer has positively charged 'holes' (missing electrons). One side of this original wafer is then doped with phosphorus to create extra electrons, and is called N-type (N for negative). Where the P and N-type silicon meet, a junction is created that separates electrons and holes when exposed to light. Metal contact is made to both the P and N-type silicon allowing electrons to flow out of the N-type silicon, through a light bulb and back around to the P-type silicon. This movement of electrons constitutes an electric current - thus converting light into electricity! Nicole and the pizza oven!  Here's Nicole's 'low-tech' ...and low cost, version: Take one Inkjet printer, some aluminium spray and a pizza oven! To pattern the cell, it's sprayed with something like nail polish, a kind of nail polish remover is inkjetted on which etches off certain parts of the wafer. This creates a metallisation pattern so we aluminium can be deposited on the back surface of the solar cell which creates metal contacts to both the P and N-type silicon simultaneously in a cheap, low temperature pizza oven! Hey presto - a simple, low-cost solar cell without having to use expensive high tech equipment or high temperature processes!" Therefore, Nicole's new iJET solar cell is made using inkjet printing and low cost, low temperature metallisation techniques will enable the manufacture of photovoltaic cells in some of the least developed countries in the world. Well done to Nicole's mum and dad - who would have thought that present would have changed the world! Want to know more? You'll find info about other scientists changing the world too: how solar works diagram: http://www.pv.unsw.edu.au/future-students/pv-devices/how-they-work.asp Nicole & pizza oven: from Nicole herself http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/07/01/2291064.htm?site=science/greatmomentsinscience Images, thanks to: Solar cell: http://www.reuk.co.uk |
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