High efficiency silicon solar cells

Of all renewable energy technology, photovoltaics has possibly the most to gain from the development and commercialization of new ideas presently only in the conceptual or laboratory stage. Photovoltaics presently has a well established image of a high quality, high cost technology able to deliver in even the most demanding applications. However, there are no physical reasons why photovoltaics cannot retain the high quality performance features while being produced at the cost of not much more than glass sheet. This paper describes the work within the author's Centre directed at further improving performance features while reducing cost towards these lower limits. Further improvements in cell energy conversion efficiency have been achieved over the last year, as has on-going success in the commercialization of the Centre's buried contact cell technology. The paper also describes progress in the commercialization of the Centre's thin film multilayer cell technology in conjunction with Pacific Power via a newly incorporated company, Pacific Solar Pty. Ltd.