Status and Future of Government-Supported Amorphous Silicon Research in the United States

The Amorphous Silicon Research Project (ASRP) was established at the Solar Energy Research Institute in 1983 and is responsible for all U.S. Department of Energy government supported research activities in the field of amorphous silicon photovoltaics. The objectives and research directions of the project have been established by a Five-Year Research Plan, which was developed at SERI incooperation with the Department of Energy in 1984 and is divided into research on single-junction and multi-junction solar cells. DOE/SERI has recently initiated a new three year program to be performed in collaboratjon with U.S. industry to perform work on high efficiency amorphous silicon solar cells and submodules. The objectives of this initiative are: i) to achieve 18% efficiencies forsmall area multi-junction amorphous silicon cells, and ii) to achieve amorphous silicon submodule efficiencies in the 10 to 13% range for single-junction and multi-junction submodule configurations over areas of at least 1000 cm2.