France is to pump £260 million of state money into the development of electric cars, President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced.
During a visit to the Paris Car Show he said the money will be “exclusively for the research and development of non-polluting vehicles” over four years.
The money will come from funds already earmarked for environmental projects.
Mr Sarkozy said he will propose that other European countries encourage European Investment Bank loans to car makers for developing lower emission vehicles.
His comments came as French carmaker Renault and Electrite de France agreed to jointly develop infrastructure needed to recharge electric vehicles, allowing a vehicle launch in 2011.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 30, 2008) — Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have set a world record in solar cell efficiency with a photovoltaic device that converts 40.8 percent of the light that hits it into electricity. This is the highest confirmed efficiency of any photovoltaic device to date.
The inverted metamorphic triple-junction solar cell was designed, fabricated and independently measured at NREL. The 40.8 percent efficiency was measured under concentrated light of 326 suns. One sun is about the amount of light that typically hits Earth on a sunny day. The new cell is a natural candidate for the space satellite market and for terrestrial concentrated photovoltaic arrays, which use lenses or mirrors to focus sunlight onto the solar cells.
The new solar cell differs significantly from the previous record holder – also based on a NREL design. Instead of using a germanium wafer as the bottom junction of the device, the new design uses compositions of gallium indium phosphide and gallium indium arsenide to split the solar spectrum into three equal parts that are absorbed by each of the cell’s three junctions for higher potential efficiencies. This is accomplished by growing the solar cell on a gallium arsenide wafer, flipping it over, then removing the wafer. The resulting device is extremely thin and light and represents a new class of solar cells with advantages in performance, design, operation and cost.
NREL’s Mark Wanlass invented the original inverted cell, which recently won a R&D 100 award. His design was modified by a team led by John Geisz that further optimized the junction energies by making the middle junction metamorphic as well as the bottom junction. Metamorphic junctions are lattice mismatched – their atoms don’t line up. The material properties of the mismatched semiconductors allows for greater potential conversion of sunlight.
NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy’s primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by Midwest Research Institute and Battelle.
DOE/National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2008, September 30). Solar Cell Sets World Efficiency Record At 40.8 Percent. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 30, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080929220900.htm#
ScienceDaily (2008-09-30) — Scientists at the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory have set a world record in solar cell efficiency with a photovoltaic device that converts 40.8 percent of the light that hits it into electricity. This is the highest confirmed efficiency of any photovoltaic device to date.
Our mission is to raise awareness of alternative energy sources and how
to incorporate them into your daily life. We are particularly aware of
how you can do that with solar power. Sammy Rogers has been driving an
electric car for over 5 years. He Sells Sunshine to the power company
every day using the solar panels in his backyard. You will find
articles and information on how to use alternative energy sources to
supply almost all of your energy needs.