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Solar

Solar Energy Conversion Toward 1 Terawatt

David Ginley^a1, Martin A. Green^a2 and Reuben Collins^a3

^a1 National Renewable Energy Laboratory, USA

^a2 University of New South Wales, Australia

^a3 Colorado School of Mines, USA

Abstract

The direct conversion of solar energy to electricity by photovoltaic cells or thermal energy in concentrated solar power systems is emerging as a leading contender for next-generation green power production. The photovoltaics (PV) area is rapidly evolving based on new materials and deposition approaches. At present, PV is predominately based on crystalline and polycrystalline Si and is growing at >40% per year with production rapidly approaching 3 gigawatts/year with PV installations supplying <1% of energy used in the world. Increased cell efficiency and reduced manufacturing expenses are critical in achieving reasonable costs for PV and solarthermal. CdTe thin-film solar cells have reported a manufactured cost of $1.25/watt. There is also the promise of increased efficiency by use of multijunction cells or hybrid devices organized at the nanoscale. This could lead to conversion efficiencies of greater than 50%. Solar energy conversion increasingly represents one of the largest new businesses currently emerging in any sector of the economy.

David S. Ginley, organizing committee member for this issue of MRS Bulletin, can be reached at National Renewable Energy Lab, MS 3211, SERF W102, 15313 Denver W. Pkwy., Golden, CO 80401, USA; tel. 303–384–6573, fax 303–384–6430, and e-mail dave_ginley@nrel.gov.

Ginley is the group manager in Process Technology and Advanced Concepts at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). He received his BS degree in mineral engineering chemistry from Colorado School of Mines in 1972, and his PhD degree in inorganic chemistry from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1976. He is an adjunct professor of physics at University of Colorado at Boulder, and an adjunct professor of materials science/physics at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM). Ginley's research interests include basic science and application of transparent conducting oxides, ferroelectric materials, organic materials and nano-materials, and the development of next-generation process technology for materials and device development including combinatorial methods, direct write materials, composite materials and non-vacuum processing. PV related projects include direct write optoelectronic materials and contacts, organic photovoltaics (OPV), nanomaterials for PV, new TCOs for PV, thin-flm template layers for high-quality PV thin flms, and high throughput methodologies for PV materials and device development. He has over 300 papers and 25 patents. He is a fellow of the ECS on the board of directors of the MRS and is an associate editor of the Journal of Materials Research.

Martin A. Green can be reached at ARC Photovoltaics Centre of Excellence, School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia; tel. +61–2–9385–4018, fax +61–2–9662–4240, and e-mail m.green@unsw.edu.au.

Green is currently an Australian Government Federation fellow, a scientia professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia, and research director of the university's Photovoltaic Centre of Excellence. His group's contributions to photovoltaics include development of the world's highest effciency silicon solar cells and commercialization of several cell technologies. Green is the author of six books on solar cells and numerous papers. His work has resulted in several international awards including the 2002 Right Livelihood Award, commonly known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, and the 2007 SolarWorld Einstein Award.

Reuben T. Collins can be reached at the Physics Department, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA; tel. 303–273–3851, fax 303–273–3919, and e-mail rtcollin@mines.edu.

Collins is a professor of physics and director of the Center for Solar and Electronic Materials at the Colorado School of Mines. He received a BA degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Northern Iowa in 1979, and MS and PhD degrees in applied physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1989 and 1985, respectively. He held positions as research staff member, manager of III-V Epitaxy, and technical consultant to the vice president of services applications and solutions at IBM T.J. Watson Research before joining the Colorado School of Mines in 1994. Collins' research interests include photovoltaics, novel light-emitting materials and devices, microelectronics, silicon-compatible optoelectronics, fabrication and properties of nanostructures, and scanning probe microscopy. He has authored or co-authored more than 95 publications, is a co-inventor on three patents, and is a member of the American Physical Society, Materials Research Society, and American Society for Engineering Educators.