Feds show faith in Rice-born solar film
Barron lab technology wins grant to develop flexible solar panels

BY MIKE WILLIAMS
Rice News staff

A process created in the laboratory of Rice University Professor Andrew Barron is at the root of new solar-energy technology that has drawn major investment from the federal government.

Strong, flexible solar films are being developed through a process licensed from Rice, called chemical bath deposition (CBD), that spreads a microns-thick layer of nanoparticles on materials. The films will someday be deployed to gather energy from the sun in ways that are impossible now.

	ANDREW BARRON

Barron is an adviser to Vanguard Solar Inc., a Massachusetts company that recently won a $500,000 grant from the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) to develop a prototype of its film. The company hopes to become eligible within a year for a larger NREL Incubator grant of up to $3 million, which would help the company scale up for manufacturing.

John Palmer, president and CEO of Vanguard, said the company hopes to make solar films that operate at 15 to 16 percent efficiency, comparable to the best silicon-based panels available now. “But we’ll do it at one-tenth the cost, and one-twentieth the capital investment required,” he said.

“That’s significant. We don’t anticipate having to build a manufacturing facility,” Palmer said. “Because Andrew’s CBD process operates at room temperature and ambient pressure — unlike any other photovoltaic production system — this process can fit into existing roll-to-roll film and film coating production facilities, a la Kodak or Fuji or Polaroid. All of them, thanks to digital cameras, have a fair amount of excess capacity these days.”

He said the Rice-born solar films, demonstrated by Barron in a CNN video, could soon replace heavy, bulky solar panels. “It’ll be something two guys can take to the roof and roll out on a lightweight but durable frame and stretch it from one end of the building to the other.” Palmer said the company hopes to offer “conformable photovoltaics. You could wrap it like Tyvek around any structure or device.”

He said the Barron lab would continue to optimize CBD and research the types of carbon nanotubes best suited to the process.

“The material sciences are coming together, and there’s a lot of interest these days in renewable and sustainable energy,” Palmer said. “We think we’re at the right place at the right time, and it all began at Rice.”