New Materials and Devices for Photovoltaic Applications

With the advent of global warming, rapidly increasing demand for energy, and concerns over the security of supply of traditional carbon based fuels the requirement for alternative, sustainable energy sources is recognised throughout the world. Photovoltaics (PVs) harvest electrical energy directly from sunlight, delivering power at the point of use and are potentially a major component of the long term solution to this growing challenge. The current market is dominated by first generation Si devices which offer good power conversion efficiencies and operational lifetimes, but remain too expensive for major deployment. Second generation thin film technologies based on materials such as cadmium telluride and copper indium gallium diselenide are also showing significant promise, however the lower device efficiencies and relatively high processing costs means that market penetration remains low. Consequently, there is a rapidly growing worldwide focus on the development of new third generation PV technologies which offer the prospect of significantly improved performance and/or low cost manufacture, thus helping to accelerate commercial exploitation and large-scale deployment. New PV technologies will require innovations in materials, concepts and devices and the unique and flexible nature of Platform Grant funding will help the Warwick group tackle this important strategic challenge.