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Solar cell material has 190% quantum efficiency … eeNews Europe

A Texas-based company is suing several Penobscot County businesses for a total of nearly $2 million, alleging they didn’t pay multiple Penobscot County businesses for construction work they did on various solar installations.

Ox Services LLC filed three lawsuits alleging that multiple companies were unjustly enriched and breached their contracts by not paying for these services. Attorney Greg Frame said the company provided labor to install the solar panels at three locations.

Ox Services wants a judge to order the companies to pay $1.98 million, plus interest and attorney fees, according to lawsuits filed last week in Penobscot County Superior Court.

AUI Partners, Smoke River LLC and MN8 Energy Operating Co. named in all three suits along with other defendants specific to each case.

One lawsuit alleges that about $871,200 is owed to three companies and a fourth entity, Crane Bros., which owns a potato farm in Exeter.

In another lawsuit, Vambutas Land Company LLC is mentioned along with three companies. They are accused of failing to pay about $694,100.

Wambutas only leases the land, a company representative said when reached by phone Thursday. He said the company had no further comment. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the company is registered to transport agricultural and dry materials.

The latest lawsuit alleges that Paula Whitney and the three companies owe $414,325 in debt related to the solar farm in Glenburn.

None of the companies named in the lawsuits responded to requests for comment.

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Enphase, a leading microinverter supplier, has introduced the latest innovation in its Enphase Power Control software, designed specifically for North American customers using the Enphase Power System.

The introduction of the Enphase Power Control system is intended to provide installers with greater flexibility in system design, while allowing larger systems to be built, while reducing the need for expensive main panel upgrades and ensuring compliance with utility and national electrical code requirements.

Keith Kruetzfeldt, president of Suntegrity Solar, a California-based installer of Enphase products, emphasized the importance of this development, saying, “Homeowners switching to solar want to minimize installation hassles and costs.” He further added, “Enphase Power Control software allows us to avoid major panel upgrades in many cases, resulting in significant savings and a better return on investment for our customers.”

Enphase emphasizes that the Power Control system facilitates the export of stored electricity to the grid for economic benefit, especially with second and third generation IQ Batteries. The system-integrated IQ Battery 5P doubles the capacity of previous Enphase Energy battery generations, allowing installers to produce up to 80 kWh of batteries.

The software is versatile, supporting solar-only and solar-powered storage configurations, including grid-connected and grid-build applications.

Looking ahead, Enphase Energy plans to introduce additional power control functionality in the third quarter of this year. This includes support for bus power control, which aims to optimize power extraction from systems while maintaining safety limits on the home’s main load panels. In addition, the company plans to integrate power control functionality into Solargraf, a cloud-based design, proposal and permitting software platform, later this year.

Enphase Energy is actively expanding its product offerings, including the IQ EV charger, new three-phase inverters for the small commercial market, and a commercial-scale microinverter with a maximum power output of 480 W. In February, the company began shipping updated IQ8 microinverters in North America, reinforcing its commitment to innovation and sustainability in the renewable energy sector.

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Argyle, Iowa (KHQA) – The Hamilton, Illinois City Council has issued a warning to residents of the Illinois City Council about Revolution Solar Company after customers complained about alleged scams.

We spoke to the Better Business Bureau, which says scams are becoming more common with solar companies.

“We’ve certainly heard more reports from businesses around the solar world, not just through our BBB fraud tracker,” O’Brien said.

Don O’Brien, Better Business Bureau regional director, says the BBB has seen an increase in solar complaints.

The biggest complaint is that the finished product is not what they expected.

“From what we’ve heard from consumers getting into solar panels, sometimes what they were promised upfront is not what they see after the systems are installed and sold to them,” O’Brien said.

Argyle, Iowa resident Mike Thompson tells what happened to him.

Thompson says a company installed solar panels on his property in April 2023, costing him about $48,000 — but that was until it was up and running about seven months later.

Thompson says it was soon discovered that the panel was malfunctioning.

It proved to be quite difficult as he said he tried to contact the company to resolve the issue but the company went out of business.

He said he then contacted the manufacturer and provided a list of companies they believed could fix the problem.

“They have a website but you can’t do anything with it, they have a phone number and no one will answer it,” Thompson said.

Thompson says that when he worked with the company, he was told he had insurance to cover these types of issues, but he soon learned that wasn’t the case, and now he says he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place.

“There was an additional charge that he had to have insurance to cover that kind of stuff,” Thompson said. “I’m at a dead end here. I don’t know what to do next.”

Thompson says he just wants answers.

“I would like to find someone who can be held accountable for this,” Thompson said. “America’s great pastime is suing people. You can’t sue someone when they’re no longer there. You can’t do anything when they’re no longer there. You just stand there holding your bag.”

I contacted Revolution Solar Company and was returned via email stating undeliverable.

I also tried calling the company, but their website does not provide a number.

Lehigh University researchers have created a revolutionary solar cell material with an external quantum efficiency of up to 190%, surpassing traditional efficiency limits and holding great promise for improving future solar energy systems. Further development is required for practical application supported by a grant from the US Department of Energy.

This shows great potential for the development of highly efficient next-generation solar cells, which are vital to meet global energy demand.

A team from Lehigh University has created a material that could significantly increase the efficiency of solar panels.

Using the material as an active layer in a solar cell, the prototype exhibits an average photovoltaic absorption of 80%, a high generation rate of photo-excited carriers, and an unprecedented external quantum efficiency (EQE) of up to 190%—far exceeding this benchmark. the theoretical Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit for silicon-based materials and pushes the field of quantum materials for photovoltaics to new heights.

Chindeu Ekuma. Credit: Lehigh University

“This work represents a significant leap forward in understanding and developing sustainable energy solutions, highlighting innovative approaches that could redefine the efficiency and affordability of solar energy in the near future,” said Chinedu Ekuma, professor of physics. of the article in Science Advances with Lehigh doctoral student Srihari Kastuar.

Advanced Material Properties

The material’s efficiency jump is largely due to its distinct “gap states,” specific energy levels within the material’s electronic structure that make it ideal for solar energy conversion.

These states have energy levels within their optimal subband gaps—energy ranges where the material can efficiently absorb sunlight and produce charge carriers—about 0.78 and 1.26 electron volts.

In addition, the material performs particularly well with high levels of absorption in the infrared and visible regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Schematic of a thin-film solar cell with CuxGeSe/SnS as the active layer. Credit: Ekuma Lab / Lehigh University

In conventional solar cells, the maximum EQE is 100%, which represents the generation and accumulation of one electron for every photon absorbed from sunlight. However, some advanced materials and configurations developed over the past few years have demonstrated the ability to generate and harvest multiple electrons from high-energy photons, representing an EQE greater than 100%.

Srihari Kastuar, Lehigh University. Credit: Lehigh University

Although not yet widely commercialized, Multiple Exciton Generation (MEG) materials have the potential to significantly increase the efficiency of solar energy systems. In the material developed by Lehigh, the intermediate band states allow the capture of photon energy lost by traditional solar cells, including by reflection and heat generation.

Material development and potential

The researchers developed the new material using “van der Waals gaps,” atomically small gaps between layered two-dimensional materials. These voids can confine molecules or ions, and materials scientists typically use them to introduce or “intercalate” other elements to tune material properties.

To develop their new material, the Lehigh researchers sandwiched zero-valent copper atoms between layers of a two-dimensional material made of germanium selenide (GeSe) and tin sulfide (SnS).

Ekuma, an expert in computational condensed matter physics, developed the prototype as a proof of concept after extensive computer modeling of the system showed theoretical promise.

“Its fast response and enhanced efficiency show the potential of Cu-intercalated GeSe/SnS as a quantum material for use in powerful photovoltaic applications and offer a way to increase efficiency in solar energy conversion,” he said. “It is a promising candidate for the development of next-generation, high-efficiency solar cells that will play a crucial role in meeting global energy needs.”

While integrating the newly designed quantum material into current solar energy systems will require further research and development, Ekuma notes that the experimental techniques used to create these materials are already highly advanced. Over time, scientists have mastered a method that precisely embeds atoms, ions, and molecules into materials.

Citation: Srihari M. Kastuar and Chinedu E. Ekuma, 10 April 2024, Science Advances.
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adl6752

The research was funded in part by a grant from the US Department of Energy.