Fiber optic co. working on solar efficiency

Fiberstars, Inc. (NASDAQ: FBST), a leader in fiber optic lighting, has received $240,000 USD in funding through the Very High Efficiency Solar Concentrator Consortium (VHESC) to help try to reach new levels of efficiency in solar cells.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) established the VHESC program to achieve at least 50% efficiency in a photovoltaic (PV) device.

The consortium is led by the University of Delaware and includes top solar teams in industry and academia, including University of Rochester, BP Solar and DuPont.

The VHESC is trying to double the efficiency of the most efficient conventional solar cell from 24.7% to 50% by 2010. (Specialized multijunction solar cells have already achieved efficiencies of 40%. See the Cleantech Group's Spectrolab solar cell breaks 40% efficiency barrier.)

The consortium is exploring new processes for fabricating novel structures for advanced high-efficiency PV solar power sources. Building on the advances made with new very high performance crystalline silicon solar cell platforms, the group is researching other innovative technologies that can further boost efficiency levels.

Fiberstars says it's investigating ways its patented fiber optic technology can be applied to deliver direct sunlight to solar cells.

Fiberstars was chosen as the system integrator for an earlier DARPA program called High Efficiency Distributed Lighting (HEDL).

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