The Primary objectives: to provide a broad range of analytical support to the Solar Program; and to anticipate and respond to the rapidly evolving analytical needs of the Solar Program. Three broad types of analysis are being carried out under this project including: (1) Market analysis: Developing a PV market penetration model--the SolarDS model--and other tools, in order to gain insight into the factors influencing market penetration of PV technology in U.S. markets. (2) Value analysis: Providing inputs to, support for, and review of the annual GPRA benefits analysis. Also developing methods and tools for improving the quantification of the benefits and cost of solar technologies. (3) Policy analysis: Defining and carrying out analysis that meets the needs of the Solar Energy Technologies Program in a timely fashion, for example evaluating the potential role of solar in the energy economy in the long-term.

Presentation on the results from the DOE fuel cell bus evaluation given at the Transportation Research Board's 87th annual meeting, January 14, 2008.

This presentation on solar technologies and sustainability was given at the 17th Annual Rocky Mountain Land-Use Institute (RMLUI) Land-Use Conference.

The developed model used is to provide a better understanding and help answer engineering questions about improving the design, operational strategy, management, and safety of cells.

Nonuniform battery physics can cause unexpected performance and life degradations in lithium-ion batteries; a three-dimensional cell performance model was developed by integrating an electrode-scale submodel using a multiscale modeling scheme.

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The project description is R and D activities at NREL and Sandia aimed at lowering the delivered energy cost of parabolic trough collector systems and FOA awards to support industry in trought development. The primary objectives are: (1) support development of near-term parabolic trought technology for central station power generation; (2) support development of next-generation trought fields; and (3) support expansion of US trough industry. The major FY08 activities were: (1) improving reflector optics; (2) reducing receiver heat loss (including improved receiver coating and mitigating hydrogen accumulation); (3) measuring collector optical efficiency; (4) optimizing plant performance and reducing cost; (5) reducing plant water consumption; and (6) directly supporting industry needs, including FOA support.

The overview of changes in protein levels or states in response to a growth condition, stress, mutation or metabolic engineering is invaluable in understanding the physiology of a microbial system. The lipid profile of the cell is similarly a valuable diagnostic of the cellular response and health, especially in context of survival in a fluctuating environment. To obtain comprehensive cellular models, post-transcriptional cell wide surveys at the levels of proteins and lipids are required. Both these fields have been greatly bolstered by the development of high throughput methods using mass spectrometry. Multiple strategies now exist for the identification of proteins, and numerous workflows to quantify protein abundance have also been developed. Cellular profiling such as these allows us to assess the potential of a microbial system for environmental applications such as bioremediation and bio-energy.

From production to the environment, presentation discusses issues surrounding ethanol as a transportation fuel.

The summaries of this report are: (1) charged defects produce 10{sup 15}-10{sup 17} cm{sup -3} free carriers; (2) treatment with nucleophiles decreases p{sub f} and {sigma} while treatment with electrophiles does not change p{sub f} but increases {sigma}; (3) both treatments increase {mu}{sub p}, L{sub ex} and stability against photo-degradation; (4) charged defects can improve OPV by increasing conductivity and creating interfacial electric fields but they hurt {mu}{sub p}, L{sub ex} and chemical stability; and (5) a better way--synthesize materials without covalent defects and dope with purposely added, bound dopants.

This presentation by Keith Wipke at the 2008 DOE Hydrogen Program Annual Merit Review Meeting provides information about NREL's Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Analysis Project.

The Optical Materials project description is to characterize advanced reflector, perform accelerated and outdoor testing of commercial and experimental reflector materials, and provide industry support.

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"A dashboard is a visual interface that provides at-a-glance views into key measures relevant to a particular objective or business process." Key Attributes: Graphical to focus attention on key trends, comparisons and exceptions, Display only relevant data, Inherently contain predefined conclusions. Note: Collecting user requirements is KEYfrom'Excel 2007 Dashboards& Reports for Dummies' by Michael Alexander

The imaging techniques enable the possibility of higher-level quality control and defect analysis of solar cell materials in in-line production processes.

This project supports the Solar America Initiative by working on: (1) wafer Si accounts for 92% world-wide solar cell production; (2) research to fill the industry R and D pipeline for the issues in wafer Si; (3) development of industry collaborative research; (4) improvement of NREL tools and capabilities; and (5) strengthen US wafer Si research.

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Presentation discussing a metabolomics study focused on a hydrogen-producing green alga and the problems encountered that are addressable using combinatorial scientific computing methods.

The motivation for this presentation is that growing inverted cells may enable technological advances in solar cell fabrication, leading to higher efficiencies. Differences in dopant diffusion during inverted vs. upright growths may lead to differences in atomic depth profiles; changes in carrier concentrations; higher contact resistance and lower overall performance. This presentation summarizes that excellent performance is achievable in both upright and inverted configurations with proper consideration; subtle differences in depth profile QE and JV between upright and inverted growths due to dopant diffusion; and GaInAsN contact layer is resilient to length annealing and more work is necessary to determine why.

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This project supports the Solar America Initiative by: (1) assistance to SAI Incubators (Primestar Solar, AvA Solar); (2) providing industry with baseline understanding of CdS/CdTe device formation and reliability--incorporation of low-cost, high quality TCOs, functionality and options for buffer layers, effect of various CdS options, effect of and importance CdSTe alloy formation, effect and options for CdCl{sub 2} treatment, effect and options for back contact, and effect of residual impurities during all stages of device formation; (3) understanding modes and mechanisms of cell-level stability; and (4) establishment of CdTe PDIL Tool for rapid material and process screening.

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