Cheaper materials could be key to low-cost solar cells

San Francisco - Berkeley - Psychologist Jack Block, 85, has died Positive prospects for California's green businesses, study finds Chancelllor Birgeneau announces senior-management transition plans, as Brostrom accepts UCOP position UC to cut fewer freshmen from fall 2010 enrollment NSF grant to launch world's first open-source genetic parts production facility - Unconventional solar cell materials that are as abundant but much less costly than silicon and other semiconductors in use today could substantially reduce the cost of solar photovoltaics, according to a new study from the Energy and Resources Group and the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). These materials, some of which are highly abundant, could expand the potential for solar cells to become a globally significant source of low-carbon energy, the study authors said. , examines the two most pressing challenges to large-scale deployment of solar photovoltaics as the world moves toward a carbon neutral future: cost per kilowatt hour and total resource abundance. The UC Berkeley study evaluated 23 promising semiconducting materials and discovered that 12 are abundant enough to meet or exceed annual worldwide energy demand. Of those 12, nine have a significant raw material cost reduction over traditional crystalline silicon, the most widely used photovoltaic material in mass production today. The work provides a roadmap for research into novel solar cell types precisely when the U. S.