Photovoltaic challenge

Zweibel, K. (1990) Harnessing Solar Power The Photovoltaics Challenge (Plenum Press, New York). 

Arvizu, D.E., Meeting the renewable energy challenge What will it take to reach solar PV s ultimate potential, Presented at the 2006 IEEE 4th World Conf. on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion, Waikoloa, Hawaii, NREL/PR-100-40011. 

The next three chapters (Chapters 9-11) focus on the deposition of nano-structured or microstructured films and entities. Porous oxide thin films are, for example, of great interest due to potential application of these films as low-K dielectrics and in sensors, selective membranes, and photovoltaic applications. One of the key challenges in this area is the problem of controlling, ordering, and combining pore structure over different length scales. Chapter 9 provides an introduction and discussion of evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA), a method that combines sol-gel synthesis with self-assembly and phase separation to produce films with a tailored pore structure. Chapter 10 describes how nanomaterials can be used as soluble precursors for the preparation of extended... 

Cells made from GaAs are more costly than silicon cells, because the production process is not as well developed, and gallium and arsenic are not abundant materials. GaAs cells have been used when very high efficiency is needed regardless of cost such as required in space applications. They were also used in the Sunraycer, a photovoltaic-powered electric car, which won the Pentax World Solar Challenge race for solar-powered vehicles in 1987. It ran the 3000-km from Darwin to Adelaide, Australia at an average day time speed of 66-km per hour. The 1990 race was won by a... 

However, there are many challenges to exploiting direct conversion of solar energy into electricity and/or chemical fuels. For a comprehensive review of the basic research challenges in the photovoltaic conversion of solar energy see Refs. [2, 3, 9]. 

In spite of the high level of commercial success of inorganic semi-conductor based photovoltaic cells, they are unlikely to challenge seriously electricity generation from fossil fuels because they are costly to manufacture and it is also difficult to make large area cells. These difficulties have spurred on research into organic alternatives, especially those that can be incorporated into or be part of a polymer, thus making cell construction easier. 

Current Challenges in Organic Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conversion... 

---