Research
Silicon cluster tool in the Process Development and Integration Laboratory at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Staff from the four Collaboratory Institutions lead the research efforts of the Center for Revolutionary Solar Photoconversion (CRSP) to develop technologies that substantially impact global solar energy utilization. The long-term goal of the CRSP is to produce electricity and solar fuels at costs competitive with energy produced from coal. CRSP researchers see these technologies focusing on the following three categories:
Electricity Production (Photovoltaics): The photoconversion processes yield electricity, as in solid-state photovoltaic solar cells based on bulk semiconductor p-n junctions, but they also include technologies based on the absorption of solar photons in molecular or polymeric chromophores, or in semiconductors in contact with electrochemical redox systems.
Photoconversion into Liquid and Gaseous Fuels: These technologies involve a one-step direct process where the fuel (e.g., hydrogen, hydrocarbons, or alcohols) is the initial product of a direct photoelectrochemical, photochemical, or photobiological process driven by solar photons.
Novel Nanostructures and Advances in Nanoscience: These technologies have already played and will continue to play a major role in the science of third-generation solar photon conversion.
The areas of research being pursued include photovoltaics (inorganic and organic), photophysics, photoelectrochemistry, photochemistry, photobiology and nanoscience.
Key information related to the three CRSP research programs and researchers can be found at the following links:
