The Centre for Advanced Studies and Energy of the University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar, has developed solar panels at half the price of the existing silicon ones with the help of international partners by using the third generation solar photovoltaic technology.
The principal investigator of the project said the third generation solar photovoltaic panels would cost 50 per cent less than those made with the help of silicon photovoltaic technology mostly by the Chinese companies and sold in the country. He said the third generation solar panels would cost less than the existing ones as the materials used in them were locally available and the manufacturing required lower temperature.
Dr Najeebullah, who has done PhD in material sciences from Cambridge University said that the solar panels in the market needed highly refined poured silicon with purity of 99.99999 per cent and processing temperature of 1100 and above degree centigrade. This new intervention has replaced silicon with the naturally available metal halide provskitein, which will be produced at 450 degree centigrade. Prof Han was working on the commercialisation of the emerging solar technology and was going to establish a 200MW unit in Huwan area of China.
Dr Toby Meyer, who had done PhD at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale Lausanne, Switzerland, helped establish the prototyping lab in the UET. Dr Toby has been working on third generation solar PV since 1994. He is the student of Prof Michael Graetzel, who is the pioneer of the third generation solar panels. The principal investigator said four companies of the world, including Oxford PV in UK and Germany, Wonder Solar founded by Prof Han, Microquanta, GCL-nano, both in China, and other had so far established manufacturing units and tested their produces in the field and were about to provide their products for commercial purposes.
