Taking Solar Power Mainstream

“The sun is by far the largest potential source of energy for the planet,“ says Dr. Nazir Kherani. “In fact, if we could capture all the energy reaching us from the sun in just one hour and turn it into electricity, we could power the earth for a year.”

So, what’s holding us back?

Cost is the major factor, says Dr. Kherani, an associate professor of electrical engineering and materials science at the University of Toronto. To collect one kilowatt per hour (kWh) of solar energy from rooftop solar panels costs about 35 cents, compared to approximately 10 cents for electricity. That’s a difference too many people aren’t willing to pay.

Dr. Kherani’s goal is to help take solar power mainstream. He’s leading a team of researchers from the universities of Toronto and Waterloo in a project to develop low cost, high efficiency silicon photovoltaics. The five-year, $15 million project is funded in part by the Ministry of Research and Innovation’s Research Excellence program.

“Photovoltaics is the direct conversion of solar energy into electricity,” explains Dr. Kherani,  “Conversion is done through a photovoltaic device, or solar cell.”
 
Silicon is most commonly used to make solar cells because it’s efficient, stable, environmentally friendly and readily available – but producing the cells is expensive and that’s been the stumbling block to widespread use.

There are two ways to reduce the cost. You can increase energy conversion efficiency or you can decrease production and material costs. In partnership with ARISE Technologies, a Waterloo-based solar technology company, Dr. Kherani proposes to do both.

“We’re developing a set of ‘thin film on silicon wafer’ technologies that will result in the development of a prototype of a high efficiency silicon photovoltaic solar cell,” says Dr. Kherani. “Solar cells that are currently on the market have an average efficiency of just 15%. We aim to increase that by 50 per cent using low-temperature processing.”

And while Dr. Kherani’s team focuses on improving the efficiency of solar cells, scientists at ARISE will be developing, and piloting, a less costly production process for them. It’s a collaboration that holds the promise of getting high efficiency solar cells onto the market quickly – for a reasonable price.

With countries worldwide grappling with the dual challenges of providing secure and environmentally friendly energy, the potential market for the technology is huge. By 2011 the global photovoltaics market is predicted to be $40-plus billion a year and growing by 30 per cent per year.

While the Japanese, Germans and Americans have a leg-up on us, Dr. Kherani is convinced that the solar cells his team will produce will position Ontario as a major supplier to the world market.

Ian MacLellan, president and CEO of ARISE Technologies, is equally optimistic.

“The solar power industry is still in the early stages,” says Mr. MacLellan. “Leadership is up for grabs. We’re developing an exciting proprietary technology that we believe will enable us to capture a large portion of the high performance silicon photovoltaics market.”

He adds, “If we’re successful, we’ll create a compelling opportunity for Ontario that will result in the establishment of a manufacturing base and high tech jobs.”