We have developed a system of electrical power generation that is both as simple as it is ingenious. This system utilises the principles of the photovoltaic - light to electricity - energy transfer. We believe that our developments resolve the core factors of inefficiency in such a dynamic way, that it will change the global energy market.
Below is a brief introduction to the benefits of photovoltaics and the problems associated with their use as a dependable, cost effective and efficient source of energy generation, giving rise to their continued inclusion as an ‘alternative’ energy and not a main energy source.
Relevance of Photovoltaic
Photovoltaics (PV) is an important energy technology for the following key reasons
- Few power-generation technologies have as little impact on the environment as photovoltaics
- As it generates electricity from light, PV produces no air pollution or hazardous waste
- It does not require liquid or gaseous fuels to be transported or combusted
- PV has the potential to free energy production from the cost fluctuations and uncertainties surrounding conventional energy supplies
- Electrical generation using PV technologies has the potential to impact in a major way on the economy, energy assurance and the environment because:
- It is highly reliable and needs little maintenance
- It costs little to build and operate
- It can be produced domestically with relatively low capital investments
- It is modular and thus flexible in terms of size and applications
- It has the potential to meet the demand and capacity challenges facing energy service providers
- It has virtually no environmental impact
- Over the last 20 years the focus of PV research has been towards increasing efficiencies of energy transfer from sunlight into electricity. Major technological breakthroughs in material sciences are being made regularly in this field
Photovoltaics is probably the most highly regarded form of ‘alternative energy’ because it is clean, environmentally sound, low maintenance and ‘grid-independent’ form of electrical energy generation.
Everything about PV electrical generation is good except, in simple terms – what happens at night?
The issues are of course more complex than this, but the fundamental restraining factor in the mass usage and acceptance by the user of the PV system is the low efficiency of PV systems and the inherent unreliability in regions that are not climatically suitable.
PV systems as ‘solar panel’ power generators are dependant upon sunlight. This means geographical location, hours of ‘blue sky’ sunlight and cloudy skies per day, the angle of incidence upon the solar panel of the suns rays, intensity of the sunlight are all factors affecting efficiency.
Also, solar panels are by nature external means that it is necessary to protect the PV cells within the solar panel from the damaging elements of sunlight and other environment factors such as rain, snow, birds and the like.
At present, PV research is hitting levels of efficiency of around 20%.
One of the main factors of this low level of efficiency, apart from climate, is that the sun provides energy and sunlight across the total spectrum bandwidth from ultraviolet to infrared and beyond.
But the PV cells are only able to utilize a very small and specific portion of the multi bandwidth of sunlight in the production of electricity. The rest of the sunlight either passes harmlessly through the solar cell or is absorbed to create heat. The PV cells have to be protected from this ‘excess’ non utilized energy. This is done to some degree by filtering light in the same way how sunglasses work.
The standard solar cell arrangements in use today have a thickness of 20 – 40mm. The working part of the solar panel, the Photovoltaic cells, have a thickness of around 50 - 75 microns, this being 0.05 – 0.075 of a millimeter. (1 micron is 10-6 or 1 millionth of a meter). The rest of the panel supports structure and protection.
Additionally, this solar panel arrangement only gives a single ‘face’ view of the PV cell to the sunlight.
It is evident from the above that the main limiting factor of PV electrical power generation is the energy source – sunlight. And the problems associated with capturing energy from an external, moving, destructive energy source – the sun.
Solar cells do function under man-made light. However, this is not a viable option for substantial power generation as the amount of energy required to power the light is more than the productive rate of energy from the single ‘face’ of the PV cell panel.
Photon Power Cell Development Basis
Our development todate touches on the core; fundamentally, sound electrical energy production capability of the PV cell as a base and addressed how to remove the inefficient factors - the necessity to expose the PV cell to sunlight.
Sunlight is energy. This energy is transmitted from the sun by way of photons. Photons have no mass; it is pure energy travelling in the form of electromagnetic waves.
The PV cell uses the energy of photons with a specific wavelength that impact on its surface to create electricity. (see note 1)
Basically, the key factors relating to the efficient electrical generation by way of photovoltaics are:
- the ability to deliver constant and permanent base energy - photons
- the delivery of only useful energy
- applying ‘useful sunlight’ directly onto the face of the PV cell
This is achieved by replacing natural sunlight with another source of energy and permanently emitting photons directly onto the solar cell.
Principally, the product consists of a “sandwich” with one side being the PV cell and the other side being a thin film specially coated to emit photons. The thin film is the energy source and the PV cell is the electricity producer.
The design is modular.
Applied Advanced Science
The function described above is simple and straight forward; utilising today’s readily available but advanced PV cell technology and an energy source that is radiating directly onto the PV cell.
We have developed the capability of permanently applying “sunlight” directly onto the face of the photovoltaic cell.
This means, the efficiency for the cell increases greatly. The product is independent from environmental parameters, fully enclosed, modular, compact, versatile, clean, easy to install, easy to transport, mobile and independent.
With the present semiconductor manufacturing technology (mostly from Japan and Germany), we are confident of being able to produce a photovoltaic cell that is in the range of 70-80 microns thick. This means that at least 10 photovoltaic cells including the energy source, can be stacked on top of each other in 1 mm.
Arguably the production of an adequate PV cell is not the challenge and the critical know how to the product, but to the energy source; meaning, the photon emitting film.
The energy source is phosphor based with a high tech combination of enhancing additives such as tritium, promethium and other isotopes.
The following sets out to outline the principle of this energy source in layman terms in order to allow the non-scientist to comprehend the basic concept of the technology as well as the applied science.
The process has been tested, a prototype has been built and the concept now confirmed to be functional, with excellent results.
We have called our energy producing product the Photon Power Cell (the PPC).
The Product
Photon Power Cell
The PPC is a self-contained, pressure-proofed, compact, solid state, maintenance-free, power generation system.
The PPC has thousands of thin film, spectrum specific, low-light photovoltaic cells coated with isotope energized light emitting phosphor with its own micro power regulator.
The PPC is modular and can be stacked to achieve the required capacity at different applications.
The PPC will produce electrical energy continuously for several years, and at high power/weight ratios.
The PPC will produce electricity at a lower cost than any other technology or process known today.
The summarised expected performance parameters of the PPC are as follows
- The PPC technology is expected to produce reliable power continuously for 10 years and up to 20-25 years with an annual decline of 2%
- On PPC power density - It is envisaged that it could produce 3.6 watts per gram (3.6 Kilowatt per 1,000 gram)
- In volume - the PPC could produce 3 watts per cm3 (3 megawatt per m3) or could be folded into cells the size of an AA battery
- The PPC could realistically produce electricity at a cost of US$0.0164 (1.64 cents) per KW/Hr. The projected cost are expected to further reduce with the development of the PPC technology and its industrial production
However it should be noted that all four (4) variables; power, longevity, volume and weight, are contradicting, and cannot, all be achieved, at the same time. As an example, when optimized for weight, the unit cost, power and volume will suffer.
It should be emphasized that the PPC is a power source and can be applied in virtually any application.
The PPC produces power by way of two (2) components:
- Self Generated Light (SGL)
- The photovoltaic effect.
SGL is created in the PPC by energizing proprietary phosphors to obtain bright light (measured in Lumens) with spectrum specific frequency (measured in nano meters, nm).
The photovoltaic effect is the conversion of sunlight, in our case SGL to electricity.
Construction of the PPC
The PPC PV cells are coated on the N junction (the side that normally faces the sun) with 20 microns of an energized phosphor producing a bright light with a peak of 600 nm. There are several variants of phosphor compounds, which can produce 8 lumens (540 nm peak) of light to 48 lumens (670 nm peak) of light (photons), per cm2.
The basic building blocks of the PPC are two (2) thin film, 70 micron thick, low light photovoltaic cells made of a mere 3 micron indium phosphate on a 50 micron plastic back structure. The PPC cells are specifically tuned to the frequency of the light source (SGL).
The PPC is made with a plastic back structure so it can be folded.
PPC Efficiency
How can the PPC provide more power than full sunlight Photovoltaic solar cells?
To understand how and why the PPC is so powerful, one has to understand the shortcomings of modern day PV cells. The PPC overcomes or minimises most of the problems that natural sunlight driven PV solar cells are plagued with.
To facilitate a base of understanding, and to further ease the explanation process, may we use the following simplified data/equation:
- Watts = Amps*Volts
- One (1) watt equals 682 lumens at 555 nm
- Natural sunlight is taken to be approx. 86 lumens at 555 nm per cm2
- One (1) m2 of sunlight can produce 1,000 watts or 0.1 watts per cm2
(Note: The before stated parameters are indicative and shall be rated as such.)
The light emitting phosphor in the PPC is designed to produce only light at frequencies that the PV cells can convert. In other words, there are few wasted photons.
In addition, since the light emitting phosphor is coated directly on to the N Junction of the PV cell, the photons have no where else to go except into the N Junction.
Therefore, most of the light is converted to electrical energy and the light emitting phosphor remains bright for years; thereby allowing the PPC to continuously produce electrical energy for the duration or life of the light emitting phosphor, which at present, is 3 years to 15 years. Current development in this area is showing light emitting phosphors with theoretical life spans of 50 years.
PPC Effectiveness
How can the PPC produce so much power in such a small volume?
Each PPC PV cell is only 70-80 microns thick when coated with the phosphor. This means that up to 10 PPC PV cells can be stacked on top of each other in only one (1) millimetre.
Let us base the calculation on the lowest power PPC phosphor of 8 lumens cm2. With the volume of a standard A4 size ream of paper (about 50mm thick), the PPC will have a surface area of 52 m2. To convert the surface area at 8 lumens to potential watts:
We have;
8 lumens cm2 * 10,000 cm = 80,000 lumens per m2
@ 52 m2
80.000 lumens per m2 * 52 m2 = 4,160,000 lumens
@682 lumens = 1 watt
4,160,000 lumens / 682
equals: 6,099 watts.
Therefore the potential electrical power is about 6 kW.
One could run 6 split unit air conditioners on 6 kW. Most households cannot utilize 6 kW.
The PPC will be happily producing the 6 kW for years, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for several years.
On the 16th June 2005, we constructed our 1st prototype at the MINT laboratories in Bangi. In the test laboratory in MINT, we achieved 8 lumens/cm2.
The PPC can power anything, from tiny mobile devices to computers, house holds, boats, aircraft and an entire community.
PPC Competitiveness
With conservative estimates and at the present strength of 8 lumens/cm2 of the energy source the Photon Power Cell will through its life produce power at approx. 1.64 cents US per kW/hr, which is in the range of 10 times cheaper than any other fossil power source known today.
Taking into consideration that theoretically 60 lumens of energy source are possible with advanced isotope engineering as well as the cost for the production of the cell should decrease by volume, we can expect the energy production cost to further decrease.
As such the Photon Power cell is not only an alternative power source, which is extremely versatile, environmental friendly and mobile, it is also an extremely cheap source of electrical power.
Consequently it is not a product that is to be introduced into the market because of secondary advantages or environmental friendliness, but by market competitive advantage alone.
Note 1
Most typical solar cells are made of the element silicon. (For cells made of other materials, the explanation is still basically accurate). When light shines on a solar cell the energy of the light actually penetrates into the solar cell, and on a random basis "knocks" negatively charged electrons loose from their silicon atoms. To understand this we can think of light as being made of billions of energy particles called "photons". (These are not the positively charged “protons” located at the nucleus of atoms). The incoming photons act much like hard balls, only they are made of pure energy. When they collide with an atom the whole atom is energized and an electron is ejected or ionized from the atom. The freed electron now has extra potential energy, and this is what we call “voltage” or electrical “pressure”. The freed electron has energy that could be used to charge a battery or operate an electric motor for example. But the problem is how to get the freed electron out of the solar cell. This is accomplished by creating an internal electro-static field near the front surface of the cell during manufacturing. Other materials besides the basic silicon are “grown” into the silicon crystal structure. They create an electrical imbalance that results in a one-way electrical flow of the freed electrons out of the solar cell and pushes them on to the next cell, or on to the load.
As billions of photons flow into a cell that is exposed to light, billions of electrons are knocked loose and gain extra energy. They flow though the internal electro-static field, and out of the cell or module. This flow of electrical charges with extra potential energy or voltage is what we call "electrical".