Engineer Waseem Roshen is working toward a breakthrough in solar cell technology efficiency.
Roshen, founder and director of SS Power Technology, says he has found a way to increase the efficiency of solar-power cells by implementing a circuit board he invented that reduces the power lost in transit between the surface of the solar cell and the battery.
“Currently about 20 percent of the sunlight falling on a solar cell is converted into electrical power inside the solar sell,” explains Roshen. “This generated electricity is sufficient to run most electrical devises that need electricity to run; however, only a small fraction of the electric power generated in the solar cell can be extracted out of the solar cell and delivered to a device under almost all conditions of operation of the device.” The rest of the electrical power is lost.
Roshen is currently raising money on top of a $50,000 grant from
TechColumbus to continue his research. “A portion of these funds are being used to develop prototypes and to test Dr. Roshen’s patent pending innovative circuit design at OSU’s
College of Engineering,” says Gary Rawlings, Director of Technology Commercialization at TechColumbus. “The first series of data has shown performance improvements greatly exceeding expectations.”
If successful, Roshen says the consumer will see a large drop in the cost per watt of solar energy, as well as a large number of new electrical devices – like mobile electrical devices -- that can be run on solar power. “All of this should lead to less reliance on fossil fuel, such as coal, gas and oil, thus helping clean the environment.”
Source: Waseem Roshen, Gary Rawlings
Writer: Joe Baur