U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Solar Energy Technologies Program

Photovoltaic Advanced Materials and Devices: New Concepts

Photo of the Solar Energy Research Facility (SERF) with fall colors.

NREL's Solar Energy Research Facility (SERF) is a state-of-the-art research facility for developing technologies that convert sunlight into electricity.

The Solar Program is pursuing several new technologies and concepts, which we describe in terms of their promise, challenges faced in developing them, developmental status, and near-term development activities. At present, none of these activities are along any of the critical paths of the Solar Program.

These activities fall into the following three categories:

  • Beyond-the-Horizon and Future-Generation PV
  • Advanced Building-Integrated Concepts
  • Other Advanced Solar Conversion

Beyond-the-Horizon and Future-Generation PV

About half the cost of a PV system is due to the PV module itself. Presently, through two programs—Beyond-the-Horizon PV and Future-Generation PV—we are examining four new approaches to solar cells that promise—in the long term—to dramatically reduce the cost of this component in PV systems:

  • Organic solar cells
  • Dye-sensitized solar cells
  • Nanotechnology solar cells
  • "Third-generation" solar cells

Advanced Building-Integrated Concepts

One-third of the total U.S. energy consumption is due to building energy requirements. And solar energy is ubiquitous across the United States. Therefore, building-related solar-energy technologies could potentially have an enormous impact on the country's energy supply.

In pursuing advanced building-integrated concepts, we are focusing on two novel approaches to achieve this potential. The first is the AC Building Block for supplying solar electricity. The second is a device that produces both electricity and useful thermal energy.

Advanced lighting is another opportunity that could leverage Solar Program resources from DOE's Building Technologies Program and access large additional markets. The physics of the leading advanced lighting technologies (e.g., light-emitting diodes, or LEDs) is shared with the physics of certain advanced PV cells (e.g., III-V solar cells).

Other Advanced Solar Conversion

As the United States moves toward a future where hydrogen provides energy, we seek clean methods for producing this fuel through renewable energy. Several solar-energy technologies could provide cost-effective methods for accomplishing this, including solar-thermal and direct-conversion approaches.