MSE 156/256 - Solar Cells, Fuel Cells and Batteries: Materials for the Energy Solution Stanford University

Autumn 2012 Bruce Clemens

Professor of Materials Science and Engineering since 1989 Professor of the Photon Science Department at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Professor by Courtesy of the Department of Applied Physics Degrees in Engineering Physics and Applied Physics from Colorado School of Mines and Caltech Worked at General Motors and Hughes Research Labs before coming to Stanford Research in thin films and nanostructured materials, including magnetic, photovoltaic, and hydrogen storage materials

Who We Are

MSE 156/256 - Solar Cells, Fuel Cells and Batteries: Materials for the Energy Solution
Autumn 2012 Course Information Instructor: Professor Bruce Clemens 356 McCullough Building 650 725 7455 bmc@stanford.edu Course Assistants: Chinmay Nivargi chinmayn@stanford.edu Antony Jan antonyj@stanford.edu Yuxlang (Shawn) Lu yxlu68@stanford.edu

Lecture:

Self-paced, on-line through Class2Go solar.class.stanford.edu

General Course Assignments: Homework Five on-line problem sets Exam On-Line Final Exam Completion of the Homework and Exam will constitute passing the class. Each person passing the class will receive a letter of recognition.

MSE 156/256 - Solar Cells, Fuel Cells and Batteries: Course Outline
Solar Cells Solar Spectrum Light - wavelength, energy Spectrum from sun AM0 Blackbody radiation Earth exposure Atmosphere effects - air mass factor Solar resource Energy spectra - photon flux density Basic Semiconductor Physics Structure, crystallography Electrical transport (resistivity and conductivity) Electron and hole energy bands Electron and hole carrier densities Doping in semiconductors - Donor and acceptor atoms - Fermi level in doped semiconductors p-n junctions - Built-in voltage - Junction width - Ideal diode equation Photovoltaic effect Light absorption Solar Cells Solar cell I-V curve, fill factor, and power curve Parasitic resistances Advanced Solar Cell Design Second Generation Solar Cells - Thin film materials issues - CIGS and related materials - CdTe - Amorphous Si Third Generation Approaches - Multijunction (tandem) cells - Intermediate band gap - Hot carrier cells - Multiple exciton generation Photovoltaic systems Batteries Types of batteries Oxidization-Reduction reactions in batteries NiCd example Thermodynamics Review Free energy Reaction thermodynamics Standard state Half cells and the standard hydrogen electrode Zn-H example Daniel Cell The effect of concentration and the concentration cell Battery capacity Battery construction Battery technologies Alkaline Nickel metal hydride Fuel Cells Fuel Cell characteristics, advantages and technologies Fuel cell and battery voltage current behavior reaction kinetics impedance losses concentration (mass transport) losses Fuel cell technologies Solid oxide fuel cell PEM fuel cell

Solar Cells, Fuel Cells and Batteries Class Schedule

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9

Unit 0: Intro Unit 1: Solar Resource Unit 2: Semiconductors Unit 3: Electron Transport (Conduc?vity) Unit 4: Doping Unit 5: p-n Junc?ons Unit 6: Light Absorp?on; p-n Junc?on; Solar Cells Unit 7: Real Solar Cells; Advanced Solar Cells Unit 8: Thermo Review; BaSeries Intro Unit 9: Half Cells; Standard Poten?als Unit 10: BaSery Types, Construc?on and Losses Unit 11: Fuel Cells Unit 11: Fuel Cells Unit 12: Concentra?on Losses Examina?on

Resources
Energy and Global Warming Richard Heinberg The Party s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies David Goodstein The End of the Age of Oil Jared Diamond Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed Mark Bowen Thin Ice: Unlocking the Secrets of Climate in the World s Highest Mountains Basil Gelpke, Ray McCormack A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash Al Gore An Inconvenient Truth Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn Earth: The Sequel Godfrey Boyle Renewable Energy Thomas Freidman Hot, Flat and Crowded D. Mackay Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air (free online pdf) Solar Cells Jenny Nelson The Physics of Solar Cells Antonio Luque and Steven Hegedus Handbook of Photovoltaic Science and Engineering Thomas Markvart Solar Electricity (Second Edition) Batteries David Linden, Thomas B. Reddy The Handbook of Batteries (available online at http://www.knovel.com/knovel2/Toc.jsp?BookID=627) Almost any chemistry text, e.g. Gordon Brown Physical Chemistry Fuel Cells Ryan O Hayre, Suk-Won Cha, Whitney Colella, Fritz B. Prinz Fuel Cell Fundamentals

Energy: Definition and Units

What is Energy?
The property of matter and radiation that is manifest as a capacity to perform work (Apple Dictionary) Several different forms, such as kinetic, potential, thermal, electromagnetic, chemical, nuclear, and mass have been defined to explain all known natural phenomena (Wikipedia) The strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity (Apple Dictionary) Energy is what we use up to get stuff done (me) How do we measure Energy? Si Unit of energy is Joule (J) James Prescott Joule (1818-1889) Was a Physicist and Brewer of Beer

How much energy in a Joule? - The energy required to lift a small apple one meter (~3 feet). 1 Big Mac = 2.3 Million Joules

Energy Units
Units and Conversions: Si Unit of energy is Joule (J) force distance

1 Joule is:

Power time the energy required to lift a small apple (102 g) one meter against Earth's gravity. the amount of energy, as heat, that a quiet person produces every hundredth of a second. the energy required to heat one gram of dry, cool air by 1 degree Celsius. one hundredth of the energy a person can get by drinking a single 5 mm diameter droplet of beer.

Energy and Power

Power is the rate at which energy is used or produced How do we measure Power? Si Unit of energy is Watt (W) What s a Watt? James Watt 17361819 Scottish Inventor and Mechanical Engineer

A device using or producing a Watt is using or producing a Joule every second

A regular light bulb uses ~100 Watts A regular human worker can produce ~100 Watts

Energy and Power

1 apple raised 1meter takes 1 Joule 1 Meter ~ 3 Feet Do it once a second and that s 1 Watt Keep that up for 10 seconds and you have 10 Joules

Energy Conservation and Conversion

Energy cannot be created or destroyed. But it can be changed from one form to another.

Riders on bicycles converting chemical energy (food) to mechanical energy (bike motion) Conversion is not perfect More food energy is used up than mechanical energy produced Efficiency measures how much ends up as useful energy Energy Flow Useful Energy Input Energy Efficiency = Output (mechanical energy, bike motion) Input (chemical energy, food) Waste Energy

~ 15 %

Energy Conversion
The first law of thermodynamics says that in all processes, energy is conserved; neither created or destroyed (must include mass energy if considering nuclear processes). However, the second law of thermodynamics says that in converting from one form of energy to another, the useful output is always less than the input The efficiency is the ratio of useful output to required input Typical efficiencies
Water turbine Electrical Motor Coal fired power station 90 % 90 % 35 40 %

Internal combustion engine 10 20 % Solar cells 10 40 %

Energy Content
1 metric ton (tonne) oil = 1000 kg = 7.33 barrels = 307.9 gallons Burning 1 metric ton oil releases 42 x 109 J or 12 MWh This is the energy content of a tonne of oil Energy Unit toe (tonne oil equivalent) 1 toe is the energy content of a tonne of oil 1 toe = 42 GJ 1 Mtoe = 42 x 1015 J = 42 PJ Efficiency of Use - Electrical Energy Conversion Example With a conversion efficiency of 37.5 %, one metric ton produces 15.75 GJ or 4.5 MWh of electrical energy When comparing energy forms it is important to compare apples to apples. A power plant needs about 2.7 tonnes of oil to produce 1 toe of electrical energy.

World Power Consumption Current World Power Use:

PWorld ~ 15 TW = 473,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joule/Year = 82,600,000,000 Barrels of Oil/Year

Power Use in the USA

PUSA = 107,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joule/Year = 3,400,000,000,000 Watt 3,400,000,000,000 Watt = 11,300 Watt/person 300,000,000 People In the USA we use a lot of power ~ 5 times more per person than the average for the world

Quality of Life and Primary Energy Usage

Per capita energy < 0.1 toe/Year = 133 W Lifestyle Difficult to provide basic necessities Industrialization, sufficient food, water Examples Bangladesh, Ethiopia, China < 1950 Western Europe < 1800 s Western Europe, US ~ 1870 1890 China ~ 1980 s Japan ~ 1930 s, 1950 s

1 toe/Year = 1331 W ~ 13 people

2 toe/Year = 2662 W ~ 26 people

Indoor plumbing, central heating, washing machine, some cars

France ~ 1960 s Japan ~ 1970 s

World Power Sources, Solar Power Potential

Nuclear Hydro

Coal

Solar Power Potential Hitting 3% of the Earths Land Harvested with 15% Efficiency

Natural Gas

Oil

USA Solar Power Resource

To make our 11,300 Watts, each person needs a PV array about 60 feet on a side

The stuff had better be cheap! - and abundant

On-Campus House PV System

3.1 kW Peak, Grid-tied system