Cost-effective Photovoltaics Research - A Summer School in Nairobi in 2007

Programme

Full preliminary programme: pre_programme.2007.08.05.pdf, 71KB

The programme of the summer school mainly focuses on cost-effective research methods, best suited for the East African region. It relies on a variety of teaching methods by including lectures, seminars and laboratory training. In the lectures the participants are provided with both a profound theoretical knowledge about cost-effective research methods and with a general overview on high-technology research methods. Lecture notes, covering the material presented during the summer school, are being made available to every participant. The seminars engross the scope of the lectures and illustrate the theoretical concepts with examples. The laboratory training shows experiments that can be reproduced, modified, and extended with equipment available at most East African universities. The participants get the opportunity to leverage the methodology they studied during the lectures by preparing and analysing their own dye sensitized solar cells in the laboratory training, one example for cost-effective solar cells. Thereby, they are trained in significant practical skills and therefore are enabled to implement effective and practically oriented photovoltaics research in their home institution after the summer school.

Lectures

The lectures provide an overview over photovoltaics basics and research with a focus on cost-effective methods. The lectures begin with an introduction into photovoltaics. Further lectures cover the most important basics of semiconductor physics, which is the basis of photovoltaics, with the additional advantage that these basics can also be applied in other fields. Moreover, aspects of electrical engineering in photovoltaics will be outlined, e.g. grid connections, amplifiers and signal processing. Besides the cost-effective dye sensitized solar cells, other types of solar cells will be introduced for getting a general overview of photovoltaics, such as silicon solar cells, thin film solar cells, chalcopyrite solar cells, amorphous silicon solar cells, III-V semiconductor solar cells, organic solar cells and solar cells with extremely thin absorbers. Finally, future perspectives of photovoltaics will be discussed. The lectures will be given by both German and Kenyan experts in photovoltaics. The international group of lecturers and participants will allow the formation of strong North-South and South-South ties in the solar energy community. Therefore, the East African photovoltaics research landscape has another opportunity to become part of larger photovoltaics networks, paving the road to a truly global scientific work force and, hence, becoming able to tackle global environmental problems abreast with their colleagues worldwide. The preliminary topics of the lectures are listed below:

Introduction of Several Solar Cell Types

Organic Solar Cells
Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
Si Photovoltaic Technology
Amorphous Si Solar Cells
C-Si Solar Cells
Chalcopyrite Solar Cells
III-V Semiconductor Cells (Ga:As)
Concentrator Solar Cells

Aspects of Photovoltaics

Introduction into Photovoltaics
Maximum Efficiency of Solar Cells
Stand Alone and Interconnected PV Systems
Basic Properties of Semiconductors
PN - Junction
Recombination Processes
Aspects of Transport
Surface Characterization of Semiconductors
Grid Connections
Amplifiers
Signal Processing
Perspectives of Photovoltaics

Seminars

In addition to the lectures the programme includes seminars for illustrating the theory with examples. The first two seminars entitled "Connection of Solar Cells" and "Sun Simulator" sensitize the participants for experimental research skills. In the seminars that follow, entitled "Photovoltaics at HMI", selected topics are presented on recent research at Hahn-Meitner Institute, such as solar cells with extremely thin absorbers and local detection of surface potential. The programme also features five evening seminars on various renewable energy topics. The evening seminars address both German and East African issues. They enable the participants to enlarge their general knowledge on continuative aspects of renewable energies. In the last seminar, "Presenting the Results of Prepared Solar Cells", the participants are asked to present their own results on dye sensitized solar cells obtained during the laboratory training of the summer school. The participants get a feedback both on their work and on their presentation skills, preparing them for further conferences and workshops.

Laboratory Training

During the laboratory training the participants are invited to leverage the knowledge obtained in the lectures and in the seminars. This part of the programme also aims at enhancing the practical skills of the participants. Considering the limited equipment available at most East African universities the laboratory training focuses on cost-effective research methods, in particular on dye sensitized solar cells. These cost-effective solar cells can be prepared even with small efforts. The participants prepare their own dye sensitized solar cells by applying the titaniumdioxid on the substrates, producing the dye and assembling the prepared components to a complete solar cell. Each group produces solar cells with different dye molecules for comparison. The dye is obtained from food, for instance, from berries or tea, instead of using expensive commercial dye. This improvisation step makes the preparation of the cells easier affordable for every East African researcher or student, while qualitatively keeping the preparation on a good level.

During the second week, the participants characterize their prepared cells employing standard methods in photovoltaics research. These methods are adapted and modified for the summer school in such a way that the participants are able to employ them in their own research after the summer school without the necessity of high-technology equipment. For example, instead of using an expensive pulsed laser diode, a common flash light of a photo camera will be used for time dependent measurements. In order to guarantee individual supervision of the participants in the laboratory training, the groups are limited to seven or eight people. Every group is individual supervised by one lecture.