Environmental Technologies and Eco-innovation in the Czech ...

design, preparation, characterisation of new materials and systems, studying of their
properties and additional preparation and testing of polymeric photovoltaic cells.
5.1.3 | 3 rd generation solar cells
The term 3 rd generation solar cells includes many new principles that should make
the greatest possible use of solar energy for conversion to electricity. Theoretical
foundations have been laid for the new principles and many of them are currently
undergoing their initial research phase. The development of these technologies will
bring the efficiency to over 50%.
The Institute for Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in
Prague deals with the research and development of structures of tandem solar cells
with the combination of layers of amorphous and microcrystalline silica or silica
nanoparticles 3 .
At the Research Centre for New Technologies at the University of West Bohemia in
Plzeň, research and development is taking place on photovoltaics based on silica
with quantum structures 4 and for photonics 5 and micro-system technology based
on aluminium nitride, zinc oxide and amorphous hydrogenated silica.
A special group of photovoltaics is concentrator systems 6 that are mainly used in
those fields with a prevalence of direct solar radiation. Although the Czech Republic
is not one such area, attention is also given to their research and development. For
domestic entities, this branch of photovoltaics mainly represents opportunities in
export.
Thanks to a grant subsidy for implementing a demonstration photovoltaic system
by the State Environmental Fund, small photovoltaic systems were installed in Czech
schools and selected universities (300 installations) between 2000 and 2006 that
created suitable conditions for research and development in photovoltaics. Therefore,
universities also deal with the topics of using photovoltaics in architecture and
developing hybrid photovoltaic/photothermic solar collectors.
3 nanoparticles – material elements (grains, fibres, etc.) below 200 nanometres
4 quantum structures – structures that make use of the effects of quantum physics – potential holes, quantum points
5 photonics – research and technology that deals with studying the properties and utilisation of photons
6 concentrator system – systems for using solar energy; their operation requires higher density solar radiation that is provided
by using optical concentrators such as flat lenses and parabolic mirrors