Photovoltaic fabrics
Abstract
This report describes a project to improve photovoltaic fabrics. It had four objectives: 1) Efficiency - make PV wires on a continuous basis that exhibit 7% efficiency; 2) Automated Welding - demonstrate an automated means of interconnecting the electrodes of one wire to the electrodes of a neighboring wire; 3) Weaving - fabric to determine the optimum wire density, relative to the co-woven inert yarn, for power production, flexibility, and wearability; 4) Battery Charging - produce fabrics that are able to charge 4AA batteries within 4 hours of exposure to direct sunlight (AM1.5). Over the duration of the project we demonstrated PV efficiency ranging from 5.04% (wire on a black background) to >8% efficiency on a white cloth background. A bare primary electrode on a nano-silver coating exhibited an efficiency of 6.45%. This high level of performance was accomplished by means of high performance active layer polymers, stainless steel electrodes with lower resistivity, optimized coating formulations for all layers, a new cladding formulation, and process optimization. We supplied several thousand feet of high performance PV wire for weaving trials and fabric delivery.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 22, 2015
- Accession Number
- ADA615168
Entities
People
- Dapeng Li
- Joseph Mayer
- Michael D Lee
- Paul Calvert
- Richard Childress
- Russ Gaudiana
- Yong Kim
Organizations
- University of Massachusetts Dartmouth