Dear Shareholder,
I am always excited when I announce a technology breakthrough by Natcore scientists, but this one has me exhilarated.
We are announcing today that Dr. Dennis Flood and his staff have created black silicon cells that have a reflectance of 0.3%. That’s the lowest reflectance ever recorded for silicon solar cells. It means that only 0.3% of incident light is reflected from the solar cell’s surface, while 99.7% of incident light is absorbed by the cell and is available for conversion into electrical energy.
If absolute zero is the complete absence of heat, then our scientists have created absolute black, the complete absence of reflected light. (The black color of black silicon results from the near-total absence of reflected light from the porous wafer surface. With solar cells, “blackness” is highly desirable because it indicates that incident light is being absorbed for conversion to energy rather than being reflected and thus wasted.)
In a world where companies are struggling to increase the power output of a solar panel by fractions of one percent, absolute black silicon will provide a 2.5% to 3.5% increase. And the fact that our low reflectance figure is available throughout the day—not just when the sun is directly overhead—has the same effect as increasing solar cell production by an additional 3% to 10%.
This is such an impressive development that Ned Potter, the science editor of ABC News, gave it extensive coverage today. In the world of science and technology, Mr. Potter is very well-known and highly respected reporter. His story appears here:
< http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/03/absolute-black-solar-panels-absorb-almost-a ll-sunlight/>
You can get more details in the news release that appears below.
Best regards,
Charles R. Provini
President & CEO
Natcore Technology, Inc.
87 Maple Ave, Red Bank, NJ 07701
732-576-8800, fax 732-576-8809
Email: provini@natcoresolar.com |
