Device and method for solar power generation
Granted: February 3, 2015
Patent Number:
8946541
A photovoltaic device comprising an array of elongate reflector elements mounted substantially parallel to one another and transversely spaced in series, at least one of the reflector elements having an elongate concave reflective surface to reflect incident solar radiation towards a forward adjacent reflector element in the array. The at least one reflector element includes a photovoltaic receptor mounted on the reflector element by a mounting arrangement to receive reflected solar…
System for harvesting oriented light—water splitting
Granted: January 20, 2015
Patent Number:
8936734
A system and method for splitting water to produce hydrogen and oxygen employing focused polarized sunlight energy is disclosed. Hydrogen and oxygen may then be stored for later use as fuels. The system and method use inorganic capping agents that cap the surface of semiconductor nanocrystals to form photocatalytic capped colloidal nanocrystals, which may be deposited and oriented on a substrate to form an oriented photoactive material. The oriented photoactive material may be employed…
Automatic voltage regulation for photovoltaic systems
Granted: December 30, 2014
Patent Number:
8922062
A photovoltaic system includes solar cells and photovoltaic inverters configured to convert direct current generated by the solar cells to alternating current. Grid voltage at the point of interconnection (POI) of the photovoltaic system and the power grid is measured and compared to a setpoint. A control signal is generated based on the measured grid voltage. The control signal is provided to the photovoltaic inverters. The control signal is adjusted to cause the photovoltaic inverters…
Method of forming emitters for a back-contact solar cell
Granted: December 16, 2014
Patent Number:
8912038
Methods of forming emitters for back-contact solar cells are described. In one embodiment, a method includes forming a first solid-state dopant source above a substrate. The first solid-state dopant source includes a plurality of regions separated by gaps. Regions of a second solid-state dopant source are formed above the substrate by printing.
Fire resistant PV shingle assembly
Granted: December 9, 2014
Patent Number:
8904717
A fire resistant PV shingle assembly includes a PV assembly, including PV body, a fire shield and a connection member connecting the fire shield below the PV body, and a support and inter-engagement assembly. The support and inter-engagement assembly is mounted to the PV assembly and comprises a vertical support element, supporting the PV assembly above a support surface, an upper interlock element, positioned towards the upper PV edge, and a lower interlock element, positioned towards…
Methods for improving solar cell lifetime and efficiency
Granted: December 2, 2014
Patent Number:
8901010
Methods for protecting a texturized region and a lightly doped diffusion region of a solar cell to improve solar cell lifetime and efficiency are disclosed. In an embodiment, an example method includes providing a solar cell having a front side which faces the sun during normal operation and a back side opposite the front side, a silicon substrate and where the silicon substrate includes a texturized region and a lightly doped diffusion region. The method includes placing the solar cell…
Locating connectors and methods for mounting solar hardware
Granted: November 25, 2014
Patent Number:
8893713
A solar concentrator assembly can include mirror assemblies that are connected to pivotable frames with locating connections. The locating connections can be in the form of cam devices or tool-less connections formed by snap fitting devices as well as tool-less cam devices.
Array of small contacts for solar cell fabrication
Granted: November 11, 2014
Patent Number:
8883247
Fabrication of a solar cell using a printed contact mask. The contact mask may include dots formed by inkjet printing. The dots may be formed in openings between dielectric layers (e.g., polyimide). Intersections of overlapping dots may form gaps that define contact regions. The spacing of the gaps may be dictated by the alignment of nozzles that dispense the dots. Using the dots as a contact mask, an underlying dielectric layer may be etched to form the contact regions through the…
Solar system alignment tool and method
Granted: November 11, 2014
Patent Number:
8881415
An alignment tool for aligning torque tubes of the solar collection system can include a rigid body member and two laterally extending alignment arms. Optionally, the alignment arms can include releasable clamps that can engage and disengage without the use of tools. The tool can be designed to straddle a sun-tracking drive of a sun-tracking solar system. Thus, the tool can be used both during initial construction as well as after construction is complete for alignment purposes.
Front contact solar cell with formed emitter
Granted: November 4, 2014
Patent Number:
8878053
A bipolar solar cell includes a backside junction formed by an N-type silicon substrate and a P-type polysilicon emitter formed on the backside of the solar cell. An antireflection layer may be formed on a textured front surface of the silicon substrate. A negative polarity metal contact on the front side of the solar cell makes an electrical connection to the substrate, while a positive polarity metal contact on the backside of the solar cell makes an electrical connection to the…
Methods and structures for forming and protecting thin films on substrates
Granted: November 4, 2014
Patent Number:
8877617
A method for forming of a thin film on a substrate is disclosed. The method includes cleaning a process chamber by flowing a first gas having fluorine. The method also includes coating the process chamber with a first encapsulating layer including amorphous silicon (A-Si) by flowing a second gas for a first duration, where the first encapsulating layer protects against fluorine contamination. The method further includes loading a substrate into the process chamber, depositing a thin film…
Balancing vibrations at harmonic frequencies by injecting harmonic balancing signals into the armature of a linear motor/alternator coupled to a Stirling machine
Granted: October 14, 2014
Patent Number:
8860381
Vibrations at harmonic frequencies are reduced by injecting harmonic balancing signals into the armature of a linear motor/alternator coupled to a Stirling machine. The vibrations are sensed to provide a signal representing the mechanical vibrations. A harmonic balancing signal is generated for selected harmonics of the operating frequency by processing the sensed vibration signal with adaptive filter algorithms of adaptive filters for each harmonic. Reference inputs for each harmonic…
Optoelectronic device with heat spreader unit
Granted: October 14, 2014
Patent Number:
8860162
A solar module includes a solar cell, a heat spreader layer disposed above the solar cell, and a cell interconnect disposed above the solar cell. From a top-down perspective, the heat spreader layer at least partially surrounds an exposed portion of the cell interconnect.
High throughput solar cell ablation system
Granted: October 14, 2014
Patent Number:
8859933
A solar cell is formed using a solar cell ablation system. The ablation system includes a single laser source and several laser scanners. The laser scanners include a master laser scanner, with the rest of the laser scanners being slaved to the master laser scanner. A laser beam from the laser source is split into several laser beams, with the laser beams being scanned onto corresponding wafers using the laser scanners in accordance with one or more patterns. The laser beams may be…
Two piston, concentric cylinder, alpha free piston Stirling machine
Granted: October 14, 2014
Patent Number:
8857173
A two piston, free piston, alpha Stirling cycle machine has a compression piston with a cylindrical bore that is coaxial with the cylinders in which the pistons reciprocate. An expansion piston sealingly extends into both an expansion cylinder and into the cylindrical bore in the compression piston. The expansion piston has the same diameter within both the expansion cylinder and the cylindrical bore. A spring, preferably a gas spring, drivingly connects the pistons. The reciprocation of…
Locating connectors and methods for mounting solar hardware
Granted: September 23, 2014
Patent Number:
8839784
A solar concentrator assembly can include edge solar receiver assemblies that are connected to pivotable frames with locating connections. The locating connections can be in the form of cam devices or tool-less connections formed by snap fitting devices as well as tool-less cam devices.
Photovoltaic module and interlocked stack of photovoltaic modules
Granted: September 2, 2014
Patent Number:
8822812
One embodiment relates to an arrangement of photovoltaic modules configured for transportation. The arrangement includes a plurality of photovoltaic modules, each photovoltaic module including a frame. A plurality of individual male alignment features and a plurality of individual female alignment features are included on each frame. Adjacent photovoltaic modules are interlocked by multiple individual male alignment features on a first module of the adjacent photovoltaic modules fitting…
Fabricating solar cells with silicon nanoparticles
Granted: September 2, 2014
Patent Number:
8822262
A laser contact process is employed to form contact holes to emitters of a solar cell. Doped silicon nanoparticles are formed over a substrate of the solar cell. The surface of individual or clusters of silicon nanoparticles is coated with a nanoparticle passivation film. Contact holes to emitters of the solar cell are formed by impinging a laser beam on the passivated silicon nanoparticles. For example, the laser contact process may be a laser ablation process. In that case, the…
Thin silicon solar cell and method of manufacture
Granted: September 2, 2014
Patent Number:
8822257
A method of fabricating a solar cell is disclosed. The method includes the steps of forming a sacrificial layer on a silicon substrate, forming a doped silicon layer atop the sacrificial substrate, forming a silicon film atop the doped silicon layer, forming a plurality of interdigitated contacts on the silicon film, contacting each of the plurality of interdigitated contacts with a metal contact, and removing the sacrificial layer.
Solar cell having doped semiconductor heterojunction contacts
Granted: August 26, 2014
Patent Number:
8815631
A silicon solar cell has doped amorphous silicon contacts formed on a tunnel silicon oxide layer on a surface of a silicon substrate. High temperature processing is unnecessary in fabricating the solar cell.
