Manufacturing in areas of the developing world that lack electricity severely restricts the technical sophistication of what is produced. More than a billion people with no access to electricity still have access to some imported higher-technologies; however, these often lack customization and often appropriateness for their community. Open source appropriate technology (OSAT) can overcome this challenge, but one of the key impediments to the more rapid development and distribution of OSAT is the lack of means of production beyond a specific technical complexity. This study designs and demonstrates the technical viability of two open-source mobile digital manufacturing facilities powered with solar photovoltaics, and capable of printing customizable OSAT in any community with access to sunlight. The first, designed for community use, such as in schools or makerspaces, is semi-mobile and capable of nearly continuous 3-D printing using RepRap technology, while also powering multiple computers. The second design, which can be completely packed into a standard suitcase, allows for specialist travel from community to community to provide the ability to custom manufacture OSAT as needed, anywhere. These designs not only bring the possibility of complex manufacturing and replacement part fabrication to isolated rural communities lacking access to the electric grid, but they also offer the opportunity to leap-frog the entire conventional manufacturing supply chain, while radically reducing both the cost and the environmental impact of products for developing communities.

Previous work has shown that high-temperature short-term spike thermal annealing of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) photovoltaic thermal (PVT) systems results in higher electrical energy output. The relationship between temperature and performance of a-Si:H PVT is not simple as high temperatures during thermal annealing improves the immediate electrical performance following an anneal, but during the anneal it creates a marked drop in electrical performance. In addition, the power generation of a-Si:H PVT depends on both the environmental conditions and the Staebler-Wronski Effect kinetics. In order to improve the performance of a-Si:H PVT systems further, this paper reports on the effect of various dispatch strategies on system electrical performance. Utilizing experimental results from thermal annealing, an annealing model simulation for a-Si:H-based PVT was developed and applied to different cities in the U. S. to investigate potential geographic effects on the dispatch optimization of the overall electrical PVT systems performance and annual electrical yield. The results showed that spike thermal annealing once per day maximized the improved electrical energy generation.

Previous studies with fixed operating temperatures have shown that hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) was a promising absorber layer for solar photovoltaic -thermal (PVT) systems because of a) a low temperature coefficient and b) the opportunity to reverse light induced degradation with thermal annealing. This study further refined the simulation of the optimal dispatch strategy for a-Si:H based PVT by studying annealing cycles and analysis of the degradation at other operating temperatures controlled by the varying ambient temperatures.Four representative case studies were evaluated for the combinations of high and low solar flux and high and low average ambient temperature. Electrically-optimized dispatch strategies are found for a range of PVT thermal insulating effectivenesses. The results showed significantly more electricity generation in all the case study representative regions except for areas dominated by low temperatures and low solar fluxes. These results indicate that a-Si:H PV performance can be improved in most populated regions in the world by integrating it into a PVT device and using spike annealing to reverse light-induced degradation effects. The model presented in this paper uses publicly-available data to implement suitable dispatch strategies and execute virtual performance analysis of PVT for any geographic location in the world.

The unrestrained combustion of fossil fuels has resulted in vast pollution at the local scale throughout the world, while contributing to global warming at a rate that seriously threatens the stability of many of the world's ecosystems. Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is a clean, sustainable and renewable energy conversion technology that can help meet the energy demands of the world’s growing population. Although PV technology is mature with commercial modules obtaining over 20% conversion efficiency there remains considerable opportunities to improve performance. The nearly global access to the solar resource coupled to nanotechnology innovation-driven decreases in the costs of PV, provides a path for a renewable energy source to significantly reduce the adverse anthropogenic impacts of energy use by replacing fossil fuels. This study explores several approaches to improving indium gallium nitride-based PV efficiency with nanotechnology: optical enhancement, microstructural optimization for electronic material quality and increasing the spectral response via bandgap engineering. The results showing multibandgap engineering with InGaN and impediments to widespread deployment and commercialization are discussed including technical viability, intellectual property laws and licensing, material resource scarcities, and economics. Future work is outlined and conclusions are drawn to overcome these limitations and improve PV device performance using methods that can scale to the necessary terawatt level.

Quantum dot (QD) solar cells have the potential to utilize the high energy photon to multiple electron-hole pairs in order to increase the maximum attainable thermodynamic conversion efficiency. It has a tunable band edge, which offers the possibility to harvest light energy over the appropriate range of light to harness the maximum efficiency of solar cell. In addition to that, integration of efficient tracking of sun using Double Sun technology results in considerable increase of power output; in effect, making better utilization of solar energy. In the present work, we demonstrated the structure and operation of double sun solar system and proposed a way of improving device performance using Q-dot nanocrystals.