Inexpensive, high-efficiency solar cells

缓解气候变化需要丰富和可持续的能源生产。太阳能衍生的可再生能源随处可得，因此一旦变得具有成本竞争力，就有巨大的潜力减少气候变化。为了实现与电网的成本平价，每千瓦时约0.04美元，既需要降低光伏(PV)价格，又需要提高效率。当前最先进的光伏技术无法实现成本平价，因为它们要么制造成本低廉但在捕捉太阳能方面效率低下，要么制造效率高但成本高昂。生产并网发电将引发巨大的经济增长；然而，为了利用这种增长，我们的加拿大行业合作伙伴与世界主要参与者竞争，特别是日本、德国和中国，需要利用本提案中描述的创新技术。为了克服这一成本平价瓶颈，PI及其合作者(郭宏教授和Kirk Bevan教授)建议开发一种新的半导体制造方法-金属催化横向生长，以实现既便宜又高效的第三代PV。在过去的14年里，PI致力于高质量的材料集成，最近在非晶态(SiO_2)和晶格不匹配的衬底上生长了高质量的半导体纳米线(Si和Ge)。他现在希望将这项技术扩展到微观范围之外，以廉价的方式覆盖大片地区。该计划将在廉价的衬底上生产高质量和高效率的半导体，通过选择性的金属催化生长为第三代PV奠定坚实的基础，在此基础上可以在未来几年内建立电网-PV。分配给该项目的高素质人员将在PV、材料生长、材料表征、器件制造和器件表征方面获得宝贵和广泛的经验。虽然这项提案中描述的研究将针对开发第三代PV，但这项技术也可以得到更广泛的应用，并影响许多其他应用，包括大面积电子、计算机处理器和电信。

Abundant and sustainable energy production is required to mitigate climate change. Solar-derived, renewable energy is universally available and therefore has great potential to reduce climate change once it becomes cost-competitive. To achieve cost parity with the electric grid, at ~$0.04/kWh, both decreased photovoltaic (PV) price and increased efficiency are needed. Current state-of-the-art PV technologies fail to achieve cost parity because they are either inexpensive to fabricate but inefficient at capturing solar energy, or highly efficient but expensive to fabricate. Producing grid-parity energy will trigger enormous economic growth; however, in order to capitalize on this growth our Canadian industry partners, competing with dominant world players, especially in Japan, Germany and China, need to leverage innovative technologies such as that described in this proposal. To overcome this cost parity bottleneck, the PIand collaborators (Prof. Hong Guo and Prof. Kirk Bevan) propose to develop a novel semiconductor fabrication method, metal-catalyzed lateral growth, to enable third-generation PVs that are both inexpensive and highly efficient. Having worked in high-quality materials integration for the last 14 years, the PI has recently grown high-quality, semiconductor nanowires (Si and Ge) on amorphous (SiO2) and lattice-mismatched substrates. He now wants to expand this technology beyond the micro-scale to inexpensively cover large areas. This program will produce high-quality and high-efficiency semiconductors on inexpensive substrates that will build a sturdy foundation for third-generation PVs through selective, metal-catalyzed growth upon which grid-parityPVs can be built within the next few years. The high-quality personnel assigned to this program will gain valuable and broad experience in PVs, materials growth, materials characterization, device fabrication and device characterization. While the research described in this proposal will be directed at developing third-generation PVs, this technology could also be used more broadly and impact many other applications including large area electronics, computer processors, and telecommunications.