ABSTRACT
Photovoltaic (PV) technology—the generation of electric power from solar
cells—has moved from the stand-alone “premium power” regime to the predominantly
grid-tied roof-top deployment regime. For the last ten years, annual worldwide
growth in photovoltaic production has averaged about 35%. Total worldwide production
in 2007 was over 3700 megawatts. This remarkable commercial trend has been made
possible by steady improvements in device conversion efficiency and reliability,
generous government-sponsored incentives, and dramatic decreases in manufacturing
costs. Improvements in crystalline silicon technology, innovative manufacturing
developments in polycrystalline thin films, and research in novel bandgap-engineered
III-V materials, promise steadily lower dollar-per-watt ratios. The Department
of Energy (DOE) is facilitating large-scale low-cost production, and market
transformation, through its Solar America Initiative (SAI). The SAI is on course
to make photovoltaics an important part of the national energy mix by 2015 with
levelized costs of energy between 5 and 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. This presentation
will review PV technology and the DOE SAI.
ABOUT OUR SPEAKER
Jeffrey A. Mazer is with the photovoltaics team in the U.S.
Department of Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Program in
Washington, DC. His academic and industrial background is in
silicon solar cells and integrated circuits. Previously, he
was employed by the Department of Commerce (NBS now NIST),
Martin-Marietta Laboratories, and Harris Semiconductor. He is
the author of a technical book for engineers and scientists new
to photovoltaics, Solar Cells—An Introduction to Crystalline
Photovoltaic Technology, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1997.
His doctorate is from the electrical engineering department at
the University of Florida. Jeff Mazer can be reached at
jeffrey.mazer@ee.doe.gov.
If you are attending the dinner, ADVANCED RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED FOR DINNER Please make your reservation by 4:00 PM, Monday 15 September 2008.
RESERVATIONS REQUIRED FOR DINNER (by 4:00 PM, Monday 15 September 2008) To make reservations or for more information, please contact:
Eric Shettle: shettle@nrl.navy.mil
(202) 404-8152 (W) or (301) 657-2825 (H)
Our following meeting is tentatively scheduled for: October 21th, 2008
Bob Bindschadler
from NASA/GSFC will talk on ""Watching a Sleeping Giant Wake
Up"
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