Why Nanopac Solar?
The Company’s technology development is due to the inherent advantages that are present in them:
- Capable of production in a simple way. The solar cells and panels can be produced in a simple way in open air with no complexities needed as in thin-film solar cells. Novel thin-film technologies such as cadmium telluride or copper-indium-gallium-selenide cells require additional deposition of these materials onto glass or metal substrates in numerous steps. This can be eliminated in our Nano Solar because there are no complex layers of materials sandwiched between the electrodes. This contributed to a significant cost reduction of 1/5 to 1/10 as compared to silicon solar cells.
- Colourable, transparent. The use of dye and its wide selection allow colour cells and transparent cells and thus can be used in different applications. For example, Nano Solar could be designed such that transparent solar cells could serve as a replacement for window panels in buildings.
- Flexible thin structure. Using aggregates of fine particles of photoelectric conversion materials, the solar cells can be formed as flexible thin films.
- Generation characteristics insusceptible to the incident angle and intensity of the sunlight. Generation characteristics can be maintained even in a weak light condition, such as under faint light in the morning and evening and even indoors. It can also generate using artificial lights where can be found in the indoors.
- Lighter weight. Plastic substrates can be used to reduce the weight of solar cells and panels. With these advantages, Nano solar cells can be installed in locations where appearance is important and other solar cells are hardly applicable, such as the glass panes and inner and outer walls of a building, the sunroof and outer panels of an automobile, and the enclosure of a cellular phone. This allows the creation of new markets with expanded demand.
- Safe and non-toxic. The use of natural materials offers an added advantage because the Nano sized material; dyes and iodine used in Nano Solar are non-toxic in nature. The only components that could cause harm are acetonitrile and other organic solvents that are used in the electrolyte solution. To this effect, research is progressing in this area to develop non-toxic solvents.
- Cheap raw material. The materials such as Nano sized materials, dyes and iodine are abundantly available in the market. Ruthenium is the material used in the dye complex in very little concentrations. This is different from thin-film solar which uses toxic elements such as cadmium and tellurium in small quantities. As questions arise regarding the availability of these metals, research is focused on developing organic dye photo sensitizers that can replicate the functions of ruthenium at a cheaper and efficient cost.
