Solar Energy - Technology & Markets

Monday June 21, 2010, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, Anaheim, California

Technology Focus

Minimizing anthropogenic alterations of the world climate calls for tens of terawatts of carbon free renewable energy resources. Yet the combined energy production potential of all known non-solar carbon-free renewable resources seems insufficient to meet these targets. Consequently in the upcoming decades, solar energy, and in particular photovoltaics (PV), is expected to bridge the gap.

The PV industry, even in its relatively small gigawatt energy production level, is a multi-billion dolar industry. Boosted by regulatory incentives, the industry is experiencing a strong growth and a significant influx of capital investment. Recent advances in solar cells and in particular in inexpensive thin films and concentrator PV devices, together with the growing penetration of PV into the energy market, continue to drive down the cost of solar electricity generation. Today the production cost of kwh in many applications approaches the retail price of electricity generated by traditional means (fossil fuels). However, in order for PV to become a major component of the global renewable energy portfolio, a nearly 2-3 fold further cost reduction is needed. Such a cost reduction will likely rely on transformative technological breakthroughs that would significantly enhance the efficiency and/or simplicity of PV modules. In addition to these cost reductions, sound policies covering the investment, deployment, and distribution of PV systems must be implemented in order to fully maximize the benefit of these new technologies.

Course Content

• Part 1 - Basic design and operation principles of solar cells and PV systems.
  The first part of the tutorial will describe the operation and design principles of conventional solar cells and photovoltaic systems. Emphasis will be placed on the properties of sunlight, the basic elements of light management and photo-conversion in semiconductors, as well as system level design/manufacturing approaches toward improving the efficiency and cost of solar cells.
  
  
• Part 2 - Present PV landscape and challenges.
  The tutorial will then review attributes of existing so-called first and second generation solar cells technologies (i.e crystalline Silicon, thin films and concentrator PV) highlighting their advantages and shortcoming and best system level tradeoffs for cost effective deployment. The tutorial will also address current PV landscape and existing/perceived technical and economic barriers toward a large scale deployment of photovoltaics. This part of the tutorial will cover various issues ranging from the present state of the markets, constrains imposed by global planetary material reserves, and toxic-carbon footprints associated with present day technology.
  
  
• Part 3 - Next Generation Photovoltaics.
  The final part of the tutorial will provide an overview of present R&D into 3rd generation ultra-efficient photovoltaics. Covered will be emerging or transformative R&D and innovations based on nanotechnology that could help to significantly enhance the efficiency and reduce the cost of PV systems .and therefore help the society in meeting its future energy needs in more sustainable and cost effective manner.
  

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