4CPV: Materials and processes for quad-junction concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) solar cells with conversion efficiencies in the 45%-50% range, grown by chemical beam epitaxy

该项目着眼于可再生能源，并建立在加拿大现有能力的基础上，开发世界上最高效的光伏电池用于太阳能系统。通过建立在过去10-20年在加拿大高科技领域收集的专业知识，该项目使两个大学团体（渥太华大学和舍布鲁克大学）能够进一步与渥太华Cyrium技术公司的现有合作。Cyrium正在商业化生产其QDEC产品，其效率最低为38%，以及效率超过约40%的高性能生产太阳能电池。该项目旨在利用这一优秀的成果，并将其提高10%，这样使用这些设备的光伏系统将能够在给定的照明量下提供更多的电力，从而更经济。它将通过超越现有的3结电池到一种新的4结结构来实现这一目标，这种结构也使用了集成量子阱纳米结构，这种结构是用一种称为“化学束外延”（CBE）的先进材料生长形式开发的。CBE是制造这些设备的一个有吸引力的过程，因为它可以很容易地转移到可扩展的制造环境。从事该项目的研究人员将在工业环境中体验从设备设计到制造和系统测试的所有步骤，并将从项目活动中脱颖而出，成为一个令人兴奋和不断扩大的市场领域（目前以每年25%的速度增长）中备受追捧的HQP技能。该项目有望使每栋建筑平均每年减少60吨的二氧化碳排放，并将为全球的并网和离网用户提供经济的电力解决方案。该团队计划利用这个项目来跟进他们非常成功的SUNRISE项目，并补充渥太华大学现有的省级支持的APECS项目。

This project addresses renewable energy sources, and builds on existing Canadian capability to develop the world's most efficient photovoltaic cells for solar energy systems. By building on expertise gathered in the Canadian high-tech sector over the past 10-20 years, this project enables two university groups (Universityof Ottawa and l'université de Sherbrooke) to further their existing collaborations with Ottawa-based Cyrium Technologies. Cyrium are commercially manufacturing their QDEC product with a minimum efficiency of 38%, as well as high-performance production solar cells exceeding ~40% efficiency. The project aims to take this excellent result and improve it by as much as 10 per cent, so that photovoltaic systems using these devices will be able to deliver substantially more electricity for a given amount of illumination, and thus more economically. It will do this by going beyond the existing 3-junction cells to a new 4-junction structure that also uses integrated quantum well nanostructures developed using an advanced form of materials growth called 'Chemical Beam Epitaxy' (CBE). CBE is an attractive process for making these devices because it can transfer very readily to a scalable manufacturing environment. The researchers working on this project will experience all the steps from device design to manufacture and system testing in an industrial environment, and will emerge from the project activity as highly-sought-after HQP skills in an exciting and expanding market sector (currently growing at 25%/year). The project has the potential to eliminate up to 60 tons of CO2 emissions per year per average building, and will enable economical power solutions for on-grid and off-grid consumers around the world. The team plans to use this project to follow on from their very successful SUNRISE project and also to complement the existing Provincially-supported APECS project at uOttawa.