Dr Ahmad Salama of the Dept. of Electronic Engineering presented a seminar on 31 Dec. 2019, during which he discussed the methods to exploit nanotechnology in converting solar energy into electrical energy. The designs exhibited include the use of nanoscale antennas to receive the solar radiation within the infrared range and pass them to diodes of nanometer size for the purpose of converting the received waves from alternating current to DC. Several types of designs were presented and their performances were compared, in addition to giving an overview of the software and scientific research methods that were adopted. One of the most important features of such systems is the low manufacturing cost as well as the high efficiency compared to traditional solar cells. Thus, this technology is promising as one of the renewable energy systems future applications.
