CSU $2.5 million partnership with NSF, Abound Solar to increase solar efficiency

FORT COLLINS – Two of Colorado State University’s most prominent solar
scientists have received $2.5 million from the National Science
Foundation and Abound Solar to reduce the cost of solar-powered
electricity.

Professors W.S. Sampath and Jim Sites have obtained a $1 million NSF
Accelerating Innovation Research grant designed to speed up the process
of getting innovation into the marketplace – only one of seven grants
awarded around the country and the only award for solar. Abound Solar
committed $1.5 million for the project as part of a matching-grant
requirement.

The challenge: In the next two years, can CSU and Abound Solar
scientists reduce solar manufacturing costs to significantly below $1
per watt? The scientists are working with Sampath’s thin-film, cadmium
telluride technology that led to the creation of Abound Solar, a company
based in Fort Collins that now employs more than 350 people.

“We think we have a novel idea for how to do this,´ said Sites, who has
conducted solar research at Colorado State since 1974. “If you can
increase the efficiency, you cut the price proportionally, assuming you
don’t spend extra money to improve efficiency.

“Photovoltaics in general is a collaborative effort of many disciplines
including semiconductor physics, mechanical engineering, electrical
engineering and chemistry,” he added. “Innovations in this field
wouldn’t be happening if people of different disciplines hadn’t joined
forces.”

Collaborators on the NSF project are Anders Olsson, senior vice
president of Research & Development at Abound Solar and affiliate
faculty in CSU’s mechanical engineering department; John Williams,
assistant professor of mechanical engineering at CSU; and the National
Renewable Energy Laboratory. The project will provide funding for eight
graduate students, including two supported by Abound.

“Raising the efficiency of solar modules is very important to Abound
Solar,” Olsson said. “It improves Abound’s competitive position and
makes it more cost effective for our customers to use our products that
will accelerate the migration toward clean and renewable sources of
energy.”

“The goal is to bring the cost of solar electricity down to what we’re paying for traditional electricity,” Sampath said.

Sampath also leads a $2.5 million solar research-and-development center
in partnership with industry and his colleague Sites to explore
next-generation solar technology funded through the NSF’s
Industry/University Cooperative Research Program. He also works with PPG
Industries and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee on an
alternative strategy to reduce cadmium telluride module costs.