In a free public seminar at 3:30 PM on February 11, in room 1115 of the Wisconsin Energy Institute, Materials Science and Engineering Professor Michael Arnold will provide a background of solar photovoltaic technology and future material options.
Abstract: The Earth is continuously bathing in over one-hundred-million-billion watts of sunlight – many times more than mankind’s energy demands. This talk will introduce harvesting of this irradiation using photovoltaic solar cells. The lecture will cover: (1) how a solar cell works at the level of atoms/electrons, (2) from what materials and how solar cells are made, (3) challenges that must be overcome to make them more economically viable, and (4) up and coming solar cell technologies.