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[I'm a physicist in GE's stem cell labs at GE Global Research. ]
[I work with a global team to create the world's next solar panel. ]
[The panel we have in mind not only maximizes the clean energy]
[we get from the sun, but also reduces the cost of solar]
[technology so homeowners and businesses alike can benefit. ]
[The process starts with having the best material possible.]
[In this case, it's cadmium telluride. ]
[Cadmium telluride is a mateial that's known as a semi-conductor,]
[and it's really found as a by-product]
[It has extremely desirable properties for solar energy in particular. ]
[It absorbs light very strongly.]
[The main thrust of the work in China is to ]
[quantify the impact of impurities in the cadmium]
[telluride source materials. ]
[We need the purest materials possible in our devices to ]
[make them perform optimally. ]
[I am a material scientist in the functional materials ]
[lab of GE Global Research, Shanghai, China. ]
[The benefits of this work in China is that]
[several very important supplies of both taurine and cadmium telluride]
[It is helpful to have the local researchers investigating]
[the impact of raw materials on our solar product. ]
[The team in Bangelore has an extremely rich history]
[of materials and underlying ]
[device modeling, and that's the aspect of the modeling]
[that we're leveraging to really ]
[draw out the best of the underlying material system. ]
[I'm Kamala Raghavan, a research scientist in the Micro and Nano Structures lab ]
[at GE Global Research Bangalore.]
[Our modeling includes electronic structure theory,]
[microstructural evolution and continuum theory for transport. ]
[The modeling capabilities we have here,]
[along with experimental data from PrimeStar and Global ]
[Research Niskayuna, will help us correlate the ]
[physics to the device performance.]
[Our studies along with predictive models at the subatomic level ]
[will enable us to build transfer functions ]
[in order to optimize device performance]
[and move towards higher efficiency. ]
[In Munich, the heart of the global solar industry, we have]
[world-class indoor and outdoor test facilities.]
[I am lead scientist in the Renewable Energy Systems and Instrumentation ]
[Lab at our European Global Research Center in Munich, Germany. ]
[Germany is the world leader in photovoltaic systems.]
[Fifty percent of all world-wide installations are in Germany,]
[and therefore we are in a unique position to leverage this knowledge and bring this ]
[technology into other parts of the world thru GE.]
[In Niskayuna, we have a team working on all facets of the thin film module development. ]
[The digital detector we developed to make digital x-ray possible in healthcare,]
[the thin flexible OLED lighting panels that will reinvent lighting, ]
[they all have technologies that we can pull from to support our thin film solar program.]
[How you develop and bring a product to scale is vital.]
[That's why much of my time is spent traveling to Colorado]
[to visit Fred Seymour and the team at PrimeStar.]
[I'm Fred Seymour, I'm the vice president of Technology for PrimeStar Solar,]
[and I lead the development of the cadmimum telluride thin film photovolteic technology.]
[If you take one hour supply of solar energy reaching the earth, it supplies]
[a year's worth of our society's energy needs.]
[And what this means is that if you cover 1% of the land mass with 10% efficient solar panels]
[you can meet 150% of today's tal energy needs.]
[And really all we have to do to make this work is to make this technology cost competitive.]
[With the breakthroughs being made by GE Global Research, ]
[solar energy will go a long way to sustaining businesses and power grids around the world.]
[The sun is always rising and the promise to deliver tomorrow's technology today.]
