HALF A MIL TO STIM SOLAR TECH

Semprius gets $500,000 in stimulus funds for solar energy technology
Jeff Drew, June 24, 2009 (Triangle Business Journal)

"Semprius, which landed $6.5 million in venture capital financing last month, has won $500,000 in federal stimulus money to help fund the development of its solar-energy technology…CEO Joe Carr says Semprius will direct the money into its ongoing efforts to engineer a more efficient and inexpensive type of solar panel.

"Conventional solar panels, such as those seen on solar farms or on the roofs of homes, rely on semiconductors to convert sunlight into electricity. The semiconductors cover 100 percent of the panel’s surface to maximize the amount of energy collected from sunlight.

"The technology Semprius is working on covers only 0.1 percent of the panel with the [expensive] semiconductor cells, Carr says. The rest of the panel features hundreds of [significantly less expensive] tiny lenses that are designed to focus the sun’s energy onto the concentrated area of semiconductor cells…"

This short video demonstrates the type of concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) technology Semprius is trying to perfect. From SolFocusInc via YouTube

"Semprius will allocate the $500,000 from the American Recovery and Investment Act into efforts to maximize the efficiency of the lenses in concentrating and directing sunlight to the semiconductor cells…

"The stimulus money will complement the $6.5 million in financing raised by Semprius so far…The new funding will not accelerate the previously disclosed 18-month time frame for Semprius to develop its solar panel technology. The company has added three employees…bringing the company’s total to 23…"