DOE/NREL Fundamental and Exploratory Research into Solar Cells: Preprint

This conference paper describes the U.S. Department of Energy / National Renewable Energy Laboratory supports fundamental and exploratory research into solar cells. The purpose of the following set of research projects is twofold: (1) to provide fundamental experimental and theoretical foundations to existing photovoltaic (PV)/solar cell technologies, and (2) to explore whole new possibilities inPV/solar cell technologies, however revolutionary or unconventional they might be. As surely as a number of revolutionary new solar cell technologies will most likely involve high-risk, long-term R&D to bring them to fruition, and may also well be needed as a complement to a future energy portfolio, so we also need timely results. As such, one of the primary driving motives for this effort isthe possibility of developing one or more 'leapfrog' technologies. These are technologies that have the distinct possibility of 'leaping ahead' of existing technologies rather than taking the more characteristic development time of 10 to 20 years.