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The promise and challenge of nanostructured solar cells

Nature Nanotechnology volume 9, pages 951–954 (2014)Cite this article

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Nanoscale objects provide opportunities to revolutionize the conversion of solar energy by enabling highly efficient and low-cost devices. Challenges associated with demonstrating high efficiency and stability are now being addressed in the research community.

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Figure 1: Relationship between power conversion efficiency, module areal costs and cost per peak watt (in $/Wp).
Figure 2: Three examples of nanostructured solar cells.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based on work supported by the Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences; the Solar Photochemistry program supports work on photochemistry of semiconductor nanocrystals, and the Center for Advanced Solar Photophysics within the Energy Frontier Research Centers program supports work on quantum dot solar cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Matthew C. Beard, Joseph M. Luther and Arthur J. Nozik are at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 15013 Denver West Parkway, Golden, Colorado 80401, USA,

    Matthew C. Beard, Joseph M. Luther & Arthur J. Nozik

  2. Arthur J. Nozik is also in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA,

    Arthur J. Nozik

Authors
  1. Matthew C. Beard
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Correspondence to Matthew C. Beard or Arthur J. Nozik.

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Beard, M., Luther, J. & Nozik, A. The promise and challenge of nanostructured solar cells. Nature Nanotech 9, 951–954 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2014.292

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