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Research Areas & Activities
Solar Energy
Lateral Nanoconcentrator Nanowire Multijunction Photovoltaic Cells
Plasmonic Photovoltaics
Molecular Solar Cells
Advanced Materials and Devices for Low-Cost and High-Performance Organic Photovoltaic Cells
Inorganic Nanocomposite Solar Cells by ALD
Nanostructured Metal-Organic Composite Solar Cells
Nanostructured Silicon-Based Tandem Solar Cells
Photosynthetic Bioelectricity
Ordered Bulk Heterojunction Photovoltaic Cells
Biomass Energy
Hydrogen
Advanced Combustion
CO2 Capture
CO2 Storage
Advanced Materials & Catalysts
Advanced Coal
Advanced Transportation
Other Renewables
Integrated Assessment
Advanced Nuclear Energy
Energy Distribution & Infrastructures
Geoengineering
All Activities
Analysis Activities
Technical Reports
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An enormous flow of useful energy, thousands of times the current usage of humans, reaches the Earth's surface in the form of solar radiation. While a portion of this flow is used to power most processes in the natural world, a substantial amount could be collected for human utilization. Because conversion of solar energy does not directly involve exchanging matter with the environment, it is possible to use large amounts of solar energy without emitting greenhouse gases. Though its potential is large, solar radiation has a relatively low energy density and is intermittent. The low energy density requires solar energy to be harvested over large areas, affecting the size and material intensity of collection systems. Modern solar energy collection devices are inefficient and expensive compared to other energy conversion technologies. These drawbacks cause direct solar energy to continue to be a minor component of the global energy system. Research enabling higher efficiency and the use of cheaper materials could allow the solar energy resource to contribute significantly to a lower greenhouse gas emissions energy system. Advances in molecular-scale material engineering and direct biological conversion of solar energy to energy carriers may aid pursuit of this goal.
Completed Research Activities Completed Exploratory Projects Nanotube Networks as Transparent Electrodes for Solar Cells Past Event GCEP Solar Energy Workshop October 18-19, 2004 > Selected Presentations |
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