Monday, October 27, 2008

Climate tidbits

I took at look at a one page report from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) about global climate indicators for September, 2008. Here are a few of their findings:

-The combined global land and ocean surface average temperature for September 2008 tied with September 2001 as the ninth warmest since records began in 1880

-Arctic sea ice coverage during September was at its second lowest extent since satellite records began in 1979.

-With just 0.47 inch of rain, Melbourne, Australia had its driest September since records began in 1855

Also in the report are the month's major hurricanes, typhoons, fires and rains, plus more detail on the above.

The report ends with their modest statement: "NOAA understands and predicts changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and conserves and manages our coastal and marine resources."

Here are some more findings from July, 2008 from the Netherlands Arctic Station in the world's northernmost village on Svalbard:

-The North Pole is warming 1,5 degrees faster than the rest of the world. Ice and snow melt faster and the sun warms the dark surface of ocean and earth. More insects are emerging on Spitsbergen.

-The polar bear is endangered. Population has declined 20% because the sea ice has been melting more. Now there are only 25.000 polar bears left.

And lastly:

-The arctic ocean is a potential gold mine for oil and gas. Yesterday, an USA-report stated that 20% of all reserves of the world are located in the Arctic. With the melting of the pole, these reserves become available. Many countries want to take part in the discussion on the future of the poles. Also The Netherlands.

Whoopee, more oil! Maybe I'll go and buy myself a car after all, just as soon as the last of the ice melts.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Fun with setbacks

Be forewarned - this is a boring post about my latest difficulties with CIGS.

The CIGS evaporator is down again, this time for a corroded thermocouple (a temperature measuring device) that's needed to regulate the copper evaporation source. I haven't been permitted to keep a spare heater on hand due to the 13000 euro price tag, which means that a replacement can't be bought until failure occurs. Delivery time for the new source: 3 months.

However, far from putting an early end to my CIGS activities at the Ångström Lab, the missing source gives me a wonderful opportunity to get really creative in making solar cells. The heaters for the three metals, copper, indium and gallium, are namely interchangeable (not selenium because it evaporates at a relatively low temperature). The crystal structure for CIGS requires about 50% selenium, 25% copper and 25% indium and/or gallium. Indium and gallium are, in fact, interchangeable in the crystal. It's thus possible to make CIS (copper indium diselenide) or CGS (copper gallium diselenide) or something in between known as CIGS with varying electronic properties that are still useable for solar cells. Copper, however, is a must and so is selenium. So, I can either ditch the gallium source and use its heater for copper to make CIS, or ditch the indium source and make CGS.

But wait, there are more possibilities. What if I keep both gallium and indium and figure out a new way of getting copper where it's needed? To refresh your memory on how CIGS is made I'll refer you to an earlier post entitled The making of a CIGS solar cell. What if I start with glass and its molybdenum coating and also precoat it with all the copper I think I'll need? Then when indium, gallium and selenium come along, these four materials will all mix together anyway and still come out with the right crystal structure. I think, anyway. Molybdenum doesn't mix in but keeps itself safely separate for its future function as metallic contact.

Problem is, I don't have any good method of precoating with copper. Sputtering would be my first choice - then I could sputter copper on right after sputtering molybdenum onto the glass. But, drat it, I don't have a copper "target" that would be needed. There is, though, a small evaporator that can handle copper. Too bad it can coat only one substrate at a time and at best it could do two in a day. Ideally I would like to have a couple dozen. But I can still have some fun doing some preliminary tests with just a few.

And who knows? Maybe it'll work so well that CIGS solar maufacturers will all end up using this method. A more likely scenario is that it won't work very well. But at least I get to have fun playing with this stuff.

Now if I could just get equally creative with setbacks in my personal life.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Politics - please skip this post

It's not often I'll throw myself into the political world long enough to comment, but I've been entertained more than usual by the candidates for the upcoming U.S. presidential election. I think Pallin was a great choice for McCain - I was afraid he'd pick some exerienced politician with lots of savvy, but luckily he chose a bimbo. It means that the dark horse might even win this race even if he is a bit darker than many Americans can accept. My absentee ballot arrived in the mail yesterday and I sent it in a few hours ago. I even got one of those ballots with Obama's name spelled with a "b" and not an "s", so there's hope yet for American style democracy.

Meanwhile, here in socialist land, I'm enjoying the health care benefits that will get my hand and thumb bones repostitioned and the strings tuned such that I may even end up playing the fiddle by next year even if the hand ends up with the palm facing out rather than in. Just kidding. Of course.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Patent application

It appears that an interest has been taken in a patent application that Uwe, Per-Oskar and I wrote up a couple of years ago about being able to streamline CIGS module fabrication using some new technology. But at the time neither the university nor Solibro, the solar spin-off that's now partially owned by Q-Cells in Germany, was interested in the costs involved in securing the patent. It was given back to us to apply for a patent on our own, if we wished. We didn't, being the cash-strapped researchers that we are. The idea we were trying to patent was going to take quite a bit of development. In the past 2 years, Per-Oskar has been working on it with Uwe's help and has made significant headway. As for me, I haven't done anything except throw the initial idea to Uwe and P-O to implement.

Too bad that we're not going to get rich off of it - we merely get a one-time insignificantly small sum to keep us happy. There'll probably be a celebratory cake at some point too, I expect.

Is it coincidence that Uwe and P-O also happen to be fellow carpoolers?

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Thumbthings REALLY never end

I had presumed that yesterday's visit to the doc would be my last - he would have told me what the status of my thumb and wrist was and essentially would have told me to live with whatever it was. But no. The first comment was about how the thumb is pointing int the wrong direction and that it would have to be operated if I'm ever to regain proper use of it. The second was that the bones in my hand should be repositioned so that they would stop grinding into each other. In other words, operation. This from the doc who has left me once on the operating table when I was already out cold because he decided at the last second not to operate. Due to a waiting list, the operation won't be until December. The thumb should be able to regain its strength, but the wrist will lose mobility. The idea with the wrist fix is that it will prevent almost certain arthritis due to heavy damage decades ago. This is disappointing since even now the wrist won't bend enough to allow for comfortable bicycling. After the operation I get to start over from the beginning with a cast and rehabilitation etc. Possibly I'll recover enough strength to finally be able to change gears while bicycling. Just so long as I don't try to hold onto the handlebar.