Abstract: A method and apparatus for generating energy from a composition containing guanidine and a method for providing the composition containing guanidine. The apparatus includes a container such as tank (1) for providing the composition, and a container such as tank (2) for providing water. The composition is delivered from tank (1) to a container such as reactor (3) for reacting the guadinine composition with water, supplied from tank (2), to form ammonia. The apparatus may also include buffer tank (4) for storing the ammonia produced by the reactor.

Abstract: A halogen lamp of illuminance 150,000 lux or greater and wavelength 1129 nm or less is provided in the vicinity of a probe of an electrostatic capacitative flatness measuring instrument, and illuminates the surface of the wafer under measurement. When the light enters into the bulk, it is converted to excitation energy, which converts the valence electrons of the silicon into conduction electrons. Since the free electrons or positive holes generated from the silicon are overwhelmingly more than the dopant or oxygen donors, the wafer exhibits characteristics similar to metal. That is, electrons are uniformly distributed in all parts of the wafer. When, in this state, the upper face and lower face of the wafer are measured, the relative dielectric constant is fixed in all locations, so all the changes in electrical amount can be measured as changes in distance between the wafer and the probe.

Abstract: An inexpensive, robust concrete solar cell (10) comprises a photovoltaic material embedded in and extending beyond front and rear major surfaces (18 and 16) of a matrix layer (14). The matrix layer typically comprises a high-strength, cementitious material, such as a macrodefect-free cement, reinforced with electrically nonconductive fibers (54) distributed throughout the matrix layer. The photovoltaic material comprises particles (12) of high-resistivity single crystal silicon, typically ball milled from ingot sections unsuitable for slicing into silicon wafers. An aluminum sheet (28) attached to the rear major surface provides electrical contact to one of two electrical region (22 and 24) of the semiconductor particle, and a translucent conductive layer (30) on the front major surface provides electrical contacts to the second electrical region.

Abstract: An inexpensive, robust concrete solar cell (10) comprises a photovoltaic material embedded in and extending beyond the major surfaces (16 and 18) of a matrix layer (14). The matrix layer typically comprises a high strength, cementitious material, such as a macrodefect free cement. The photovoltaic material comprises particles (12) of high-resistivity single crystal silicon, typically ball milled from ingot sections unsuitable for slicing into silicon wafers. The ingot sections include unprecipitated dissolved oxygen that is electrically activated by a low temperature annealing process to produce n-type silicon, even in silicon crystals that include a p-type dopant. An aluminum sheet (28), positioned on the backside of the matrix layer, is briefly melted together with the silicon particles to produce a p-type aluminum-doped silicon region (22) that forms a pn junction with the n-type region (24) of the particle. The aluminum sheet also provides the electrical contact to the p-type regions.