Study assesses solar photovoltaic technologies
An MIT assessment of solar energy technologies concludes that today's widely used crystalline silicon technology is efficient and reliable and could feasibly be deployed at the large scale needed to mitigate climate change by midcentury. But novel photovoltaic (PV) technologies now being developed using specially designed nanomaterials may one day provide significant advantages. They could be easier and cheaper to manufacture; they could be made into ultrathin, lightweight, flexible solar cells that would be easy to transport and install; and they could offer unique attributes such as transparency, opening up novel applications such as integration into windows or textiles. Since no single technology—established or emerging—offers benefits on all fronts, the researchers recommend rapidly scaling up current silicon-based systems while continuing to work on other technologies to increase efficiency, decrease materials use, and reduce manufacturing complexity and cost.