U.S. DOE Secretary Chu has announced the selection of 24 PV Supply Chain and Cross-Cutting Technologies projects that will be eligible for up to $22 million US from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The project funding will be matched by more than $50 million from the private partners. Proof of Concept Technical/Feasiblity Projects that were granted up to $150,000 were awarded as follows:
Optomec, Inc. in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to enhance an existing non-contact printing mechanism to support fully printed, fine feature collector lines on the front surface of crystalline silicon solar cells. Contact : David Ramahi, President, Optomec, Inc. (505) 761-8250, [email protected], www.optomec.com.
Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. in Palo Alto, California to develop a novel approach to creating the front side metallization and selective emitter layer of crystalline silicon solar cells using selective laser ablation to create contact points on the front surface and a screen printer to make the connections with conductive paste. Contact : Palo Alto Research Center, (650) 812- 4000, www.parc.com.
Photonic Glass Corp. in Sharon, Massachusetts, to reduce glass surface reflectance by ion beam surface modification to create a graded index of refraction. Contact : Chris Myatt, CEO, Photonic Glass Corp.,(303) 444-9948, [email protected], www.precisionphotonics.com.
PPG Industries, Inc. in Allison Park, Pennsylvania to develop coatings that can be applied in a continuous automated process at a lower temperature and labor intensity than current PV protective materials like ethylene vinyl acetate. Contact : Coatings R&D - Allison Park, PPG Industries, (412) 492-5200, http://corporateportal.ppg.com/ppg.
SiOnyx Inc. in Beverly, Massachusetts, to develop a silicon surface treatment with femtosecond laser processing technology to enable increased light absorption and significantly larger spectral bandwidth for film silicon PV. This project will receive $128,000, the other projects in this list are slated to receive $150,000. Contact : Martin Pralle, VP, Business Development, SiOnyx Inc., (978) 922-0684, [email protected], www.sionyx.com.
Previous project details were provided in earlier editions, additional project details will be provided in subsequent editions. (Source: U.S.DOE, June 11, 2009)
