QD Soleil™, a
division of Nanosys Inc. focused on the use of proprietary nanotechnology in
solar panel cell designs, announced today that the United States Patent and
Trademark Office has allowed the company patent claims based on the use of nanostructures
for solar concentrators. Solar concentrators magnify the sun’s rays on
a small area of highly efficient solar cells. Such concentrators can dramatically
reduce the cost of solar energy systems because the active solar cells can be
made much smaller and thinner. Concentrator technology can be used in traditional
utility-scale solar farms in addition to novel window glass applications, where
the window tinting can be used to generate electricity by integrating a PV cell
at the glass edge. QD Soleil uses its quantum dot technology to efficiently
capture and concentrate light in a very narrow band at the edge of the glass.
The properties of quantum dots make them particularly well suited and superior
to other approaches for light concentration, such as organic dyes which have
short lifetimes.
“We feel strongly that these new nano-enabled light concentrator systems
will allow U.S. companies to replace large areas of expensive crystalline solar
cells with cost-advantaged metal and plastic concentrator systems and efficient
small-area solar cells,” said Vijendra Sahi, vice president and general
manager of QD Soleil. “Our quantum dot technology and strong IP position
provide a winning advantage for companies that want to establish a leadership
position with these new enabling solar applications.”
QD Soleil is a division of Nanosys Inc. focused on the use of proprietary nanotechnology
in solar panel cell designs. QD Soleil controls a seminal intellectual property
estate that includes over 500 patents and patent applications. The technology
has been refined over many years by Nanosys and exploits best in class inorganic
material compositions, processing and integration chemistries, and includes
the most stable nanomaterial formulations known in the field. Applications of
the technology and intellectual property are broad and include additive enhancement
layers for light conversion engineering, nano-particle inks, light waveguide
concentrators and nanomaterial composites for enhancing overall solar cell efficiency.