Materials Science and Engineering
Dr. Jurgen Michel
PI at MIT
Professor Lionel Kimerling
PI at MIT
Professor Marco Stefancich
PI at Masdar Institute
This program is focused on the development of a novel concentrating photovoltaic system intended to reduce the cost of photovoltaic generated electricity. It addresses three new thin film photovoltaic technologies: 1) photonic crystal reflectors for high efficiency silicon solar cells; 2) germanium thermo-photovoltaic cells with monolithic integrated energy filters; and 3) ultra-high performance AlGaAs/Si/Ge tandem solar cells.
The project offers the possibility to demonstrate the feasibility of an extremely efficient concentrator photovoltaic system that, if successful, could be the seed for a new generation of high efficiency, very large scale, and low cost concentrator photovoltaic systems. The employed approach, free of the many limitations and intellectual property constraints present in multifunction solar systems, will allow a more straightforward industrial development of this technology.
