High capacity solar battery invented in Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan scientists have developed an improved solar battery that produces seven times more energy than its other existing equivalents, Vladimir Antoschenko, project manager and head of semiconductor technologies laboratory of the Scientific-Research Institute of Experimental and Theoretical Physics of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University told Tengrinews.kz. The Kazakhstan-made photo plate produces around 15W, while its foreign analogues do not exceed 2.2W. According to Antoschenko, these results were achieved thanks to a significant reduction of the electric resistance of the photocell. When developing the technologies, the scientists used factory-manufactured plate as a basis and changed its current-conducting scheme. According to Antoschenko, this system allows to significantly save power energy. It can be installed as a supplementary power source. One solar battery with the area of ten square meters is required to supply one house with energy. Besides, the unit is also able to produce heat energy that can be used for residential heating. Agriculture is the most promising sector for the use of these batteries. According to Antoschenko, the innovation is capable of supplying energy to beeyards and horticultural businesses, especially since the amount of sunshine peaks in summer. Despite of the promise of the invention, Kazakhstan businessmen are not interested in investing into this project. Antoschenko said that opening a small company for production of locally-made solar batteries could be recouped in only two years, but the entrepreneurs do not wish to invest into the scientific development. Foreign countries, on the contrary, have already showed their interest in Kazakhstan's invention. South Korea has invited the scientists to set up a line on production of the solar batteries under the Kazakhstan technology. By Dmitriy Khegai