IBM Supports German PV R&D February 18, 2010
IBM has awarded an international prize to the Johannes Gutenberg Univ. (JGU) Mainz, Germany, to support research by Claudia Felser to improve solar cells.
During a ceremony at Mainz Univ., Felser of the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry received the IBM Shared University Research Award. IBM’s award entails the provision of state-of-the-art computer systems to the JGU to the value of approximately $450,000. The computers will be used for computer modeling of new materials for solar cells, to increase the efficiency of the photovoltaics and simultaneously reduce the use of harmful substances. At the ceremony the German Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Rainer Brüderle, and Doris Ahnen, Minister of Science of Rhineland-Palatinate, emphasized the importance of university research and its links with outside partners in the process of developing forward-thinking technologies.
The Federal Minister of Economics and Technology, Rainer Brüderle, says: "Mainz is sending out a clear message: Germany’s researchers are at the forefront of innovation. Our universities are in a prime position on the world stage. Professor Felser on her part is truly developing a technology of the future in that thanks to her work, it is possible to increase the efficiency of solar cells."
IBM awards the Shared University Research Award two to three times a year to support joint work with research institutions across the world. The award to Mainz University is founded on a 15-year working relationship between IBM and Felser, an expert in the field of computer-supported materials design. In her research group at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry researchers have been working for two years on computer modeling of thin-film solar cells, in order to improve their efficiency and to reduce the proportion of environmentally harmful and rare earth elements such as cadmium and indium.
Johannes Windeln, materials scientist at IBM, who is leading the project with Mainz Univ., stressed the importance of Felser’s work: "This technology will support the move away from conventional to renewable energies and will thus help us meet future demands made on the energy sector. This award to Mainz Univ. brings a new world record in the field of thin-film solar cells within striking distance." Windeln has already led important research projects in the field of semiconductor technology in the IBM research laboratory in Rüschlikon.
"While universities are in the first instance a place for basic research, we also have a social responsibility to make our knowledge available to society wherever possible," says Georg Krausch, President of the Johannes Gutenberg Univ. Mainz. "Professor Felser has succeeded in bridging the gap between basic research and the application of research findings in an exemplary way."
The research, led by Thomas Gruhn, focuses on CIGS solar cells, which are only a few micrometers thick and which show an efficiency of almost 20%. They are cost-efficient to produce, requiring minimal energy and materials. Because they are so thin and correspondingly light and flexible, they can be applied on items of clothing or tarpaulin. However, the disadvantage lies in the fact that until now, no appropriate material has been discovered to replace the use of the environmentally harmful heavy metal cadmium in this kind of solar cell. The Mainz group hopes to find a replacement material made from so-called half-Heusler compounds. Half-Heusler compounds and the structurally similar Heusler materials are intermetallic compounds made from three elements that form a cubic crystal structure. Felser is one of the world’s leading specialists in this field.
The new computer facilities will make it possible to expand the search for optimal materials to other potential materials, and to predict their behavior with the help of computer modeling, even before being tested in the laboratory. A further aim is to increase the efficiency of thin-film solar cells. In this endeavor, CIGS solar cells present scientists with a riddle that has remained unsolved for many years now: the "indium/gallium puzzle". The ratio of the two elements to one another is critical to the efficiency of solar cells. In practice, solar cells with a higher proportion of indium show a higher efficiency than solar cells with a higher proportion of gallium-–in contrast to scientists’ predictions. The reason for this may soon be demonstrated by new computer simulations. It might then be possible to further improve the already high efficiency levels of CIGS solar cells.
In a research project of the Federal Environment Ministry, IBM and Mainz Univ. are working to improve thin-film solar cells. Schott AG in Mainz, the Helmholtz Center for Materials and Energy in Berlin (HZB), and the Univ. of Jena are also members of this research. Photovoltaics is expected to be a key technology that will contribute to the goal of raising the proportion of total power consumption provided by renewable energies to at least 20% over the next 10 years. "We hope that our work will enable us to make a significant contribution to this aim," says Felser.
Felser has been a professor at the Johannes Gutenberg Univ. since 2003 and works at the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry on new materials for computer technology as well as on high-temperature superconductors. She is the spokesperson of the "New Materials with High Spin Polarization" research unit of the German Research Foundation and director of the "Materials Science in Mainz" Graduate School, which has been successful in the Federal Excellence Initiative. Felser is currently working on specific research projects at Stanford Univ. in California.
Source: Johannes Gutenberg Univ.
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