Why Some People Pick New Energy Technologies Stock Price to increase 595%
The Company formerly known as Octillion Corp. and changed its name to New Energy Technologies Inc. in January 2009.
It is now publicly traded under the symbol NENE on the OTCBB, is focused on the research, development and eventual commercialization of emerging next-generation alternative and renewable energy technologies.
Of particular interest to readers of this site – is their possibly "game-changing" technology called SolarWindow.
Technical Breakthrough
In January 2010, New Energy Technologies scientists successfully developed and integrated transparent, environmentally-friendly compounds onto glass in order to collect the electricity generated on our SolarWindow. Prior to this, the collection of electricity was possible only through the use of a metal contact, which blocked visibility and limited transparency.
Until this breakthrough, one of the biggest obstacles faced by researchers developing SolarWindow technology has been the presence of metal, an opaque material which blocks all visibility and prevents light from passing through glass. Eliminating metal has proved especially challenging since the metal component acts as the negative ‘polar contact’.
This important breakthrough replaces visibility-blocking metal with environmentally-friendly and more transparent compounds. These compounds now function as the negative polar contact and collect electricity from New Energy Technologies SolarWindow.
As a result of this novel, patent-pending process it's now possible to ‘spray' New Energy's miniature solar cells and their related components onto glass.
The result could truly be a "game changing" breakthrough in the solar industry.
The First-Of-Its-Kind Organic Solar Array
Our SolarWindow technology utilizes an organic solar array composed of a series of twenty ultra-small solar cells measuring less than the size of a grain of rice each. They are fabricated using environmentally-friendly hydrogen-carbon based materials, and successfully produce electricity, as demonstrated in a published peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy of the American Institute of Physics.
New Energy’s organic solar array has:
• The same desirable electrical properties as silicon, yet boasts a considerably better capacity to ‘optically absorb’ photons from light to generate electricity, and achieves transparency through the innovative use of conducting polymers;
• Superior optical absorption properties inherent to New Energy’s ultra-small solar cells, enabling development of an ultra-thin film, only 1/1000th the thickness of a human hair, or 1/10th of a micrometer; and
• A key advantage over conventional thin films which are exponentially thicker, measuring several micrometers thick, thus inhibiting transparency.
SolarWindow technology
As a result of the new breakthrough SolarWindow enables see-thru windows to generate electricity by ‘spraying’ their glass surfaces - without noticeably reducing visibility.
How is this possible?
New Energy Technologies solution is unique to our SolarWindow coatings, which:
• Make use of the world’s smallest functional solar cells (measure less than 1/10th the thickness of ‘thin’ films = only 1/1000th the thickness of human hair), and have been shown to successfully produce electricity in a published peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy of the American Institute of Physics;
• Are sprayed on to see-thru glass using a novel, patent-pending process recently presented in AZoNano’s (peer-reviewed, Journal of Nanotechnology Online; Dec. 20, 2009), Nanotechnology Thought Leaders series;
• Do not require expensive high-temperature or high-vacuum production methods, but rather, can be sprayed on to glass at room temperature;
• Generate electricity from both natural and artificial light sources, outperforming today’s commercial solar and thin-film technologies by as much as 10-fold; and
According to the company, the SolarWindow technology is capable of generating electricity -- is under development for potential application in the estimated 5 million commercial buildings in America and more than 80 million single detached homes.
Can Produce Electricity from "Artificial Light"
In a series of experiments, researchers repeatedly tested New Energy’s ultra-small solar cells on a 1”x1” substrate against today’s popular solar materials for their capacity to produce electricity under varying artificial light conditions, mimicking the levels of light exposure in homes and commercial offices. In every case, our SolarWindow solar cells, the smallest reported organic solar cells of their kind in the world, exponentially outperformed all of the conventional materials tested, specifically
• Almost 2-fold greater output power density than monocrystalline silicon, an established commercial solar cell material;
• More than 8-fold greater output power density than copper-indium-selenide, known for its high optical absorption coefficients and versatile optical and electrical characteristics; and
• More than 10-fold greater output power density than flexible thin-film amorphous-silicon, a popular ‘second-generation’ solar thin-film material.
New Energy's solar cells generate electricity not only from the visible radiation found in sunlight but also by using the visible light found in artificial illumination, such as the fluorescent lighting typically installed in offices and commercial buildings.
While the majority of today's solar cells can only be installed where direct sunlight is available, New Energy Technologies cells could be installed close to any source of visible light.
A Low-Cost, High-Speed Solution
Once scaled-up for use in commercial-scale production, researchers anticipate the ability to spray solar SolarWindow coatings directly could provide significant commercial production advantages over today’s thin-films.
Conventional solar films are typically manufactured using expensive and slow manufacturing methods which rely on high-temperature and finicky ‘vacuum deposition’ processes for depositing solar materials onto substrates; the resultant products are simply too thick to allow for transparency, an important consideration in the development of a commercially viable solar-powered glass window.
The ‘Organic’ Edge; ‘Ultra-Small’ Solar Cells Deliver Big Advantages
Organic solar cells, or organic photovoltaics (OPV) have received the attention of the solar energy community as a promising low-cost alternative to typical PV (photovoltaic) solar cells used in today’s solar industry to harness the sun’s energy for renewable electricity.
Solar cells that are currently available are largely made of silicon wafers, an expensive and brittle material that can limit their commercial usability.
Other newer generation, lower-cost, flexible thin film solar materials such as amorphous silicon, copper-indium-gallium-selenide, and cadmium telluride, often require high-vacuum and high-temperature production techniques, and are many times thicker than New Energy Technologies ultra-small solar cells.
This generally limits the application of such thin films primarily to stainless steel, an expensive substrate material with limited prospects of delivering transparency.
New Energy’s SolarWindow technology makes use of ultra-small organic solar cells, which:
• Allow for the fabrication of transparent solar arrays on a broad range of substrate materials such as glass, plastic, and even paper;
• Are made of natural polymers which can be dissolved into liquid for easy application that does not require expensive and complicated high-temperature or high-vacuum production techniques common to other solar coatings; and
• Organic solar cells can be manufactured in a variety of ways, including screen printing, ink-jet printing and spraying.
For More Information
Since I started researching New Energy Technologies (in September 2010) it's shares have increased dramatically. Some stock picking groups think this stock will increase dramatically once they start announcing orders for their SolarWindow systems – as the market potential for their technology is huge and their ability to ramp up production also could be extremely quick.
I've posted a copy of one reporter's observations when he saw this solar technology demonstrated which you can find on at our sister blog - Solar News and Views.
Related Articles
I'll be continuing to follow New Energy Technologies - so RSS this site to make sure you get the latest information on this ... and other solar industry facts and advice.
Dr. Hegedus Confirms SolarWindow Could Provide Significant Amounts of Energy When Commercialized
New Energy Expands SolarWindow Licensing In Preparation for Commercialization
New Energy Technologies hopes to qualify for new government funding for innovative solar technologies.
Note: The name SolarWindow is trademarked by New Energy Technologies.
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