Efficient Low-Cost Materials for Solar Energy Applications: Roles of Nanotechnology

Abstract

The generation of energy to meet the increasing global demand should not compro- mise the environment and the future. Therefore, renewable energies have been identified as potential alternatives to fossil fuels that are associated with CO 2 emissions. Subsequently, photovoltaic (PV) solar system is seen as the most versatile and the larg-est source of electricity for the future globally. Nanotechnology is a facilitating tool that offers a wide range of resources to resolve material challenges in different application areas. This studies X-rays, energy trilemma, potential nanotechnology-based materials for low-cost PV solar cell fabrication, and atomic layer deposition (ALD). In pursu-ance of improved performance, PV solar-cell technologies have revolutionized from first-generation PV solar cells to third-generation PV solar cells. The efficiency (19%) of second-generation PV cells is higher than the efficiency (15%) of first-generation cells. The second-generation PV cell technologies include a-Si, CdTe and Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 ), Cu(In,Ga)Se 2 (CIGS) cells. The third-generation PV cells are organic-inorganic hybrid assemblies, nanostructured semiconductors, and molecular assemblies. This nanocom-posite-based technology aims at developing low-cost high efficiency PV solar cells. The nanotechnology manufacturing technique, ALD, is seen as the future technology of PV solar cell production.