Seite - XI - in Photovoltaic Materials and Electronic Devices

XI Preface to “Photovoltaic Materials and Electronic Devices” The solar photovoltaic (PV) market continues to grow rapidly throughout the world [1] offering the promise of enabling humanity to utilize sustainable and renewable solar power technology to run society [2]. As the PV industry has grown, the costs have dropped to the point that with favorable financing terms, it is clear that PV has already obtained and surpassed grid parity in specific locations [3]. Now it not uncommon to have solar power be the less expensive option (lower levelized cost of electricity) for both homeowners and businesses [3]. This is driving a positive feedback loop, where additional growth is expected. The cumulative global market for solar PV is expected to triple by 2020 to almost 700 GW, with annual demand eclipsing 100 GW in 2019 [1]. This growth is accompanied by an explosion of solar jobs [4]. Solar workers have outnumbered coal workers in the U.S. for some time, but now their ranks have swollen to surpass even the oil and gas industry [4,5]. The remarkable and sustained growth of the PV industry may tempt the solar PV scientist to sit back and relax: perhaps with a congratulatory pat on the back for a job well done. However, our work is not complete. Fossil fuels still make up over 80% of all energy use in the U.S., for example [6], and are still growing worldwide as the resultant climate destabilization. This climate alteration has 'committed to extinction' 15 -37% of species in investigated regions and taxa by 2050 using relatively optimistic mid-range climate-warming scenarios [7]. As the late Professor Smalley has pointed out, our challenge as PV researchers is not to be content with GWs of PV production, but we must obtain terrawatt (TW) levels to eliminate fossil fuel combustion and enable a safe and stable global climate [8]. Meeting these goals by scaling what we have done will not be easy, as others have shown this would place a significant demand on the current and future supply of raw materials (chemical elements) used by those technologies [9]. To meet these needs, we still have much to do to advance the next generation of photovoltaic materials and solar cell devices [10], to further reduce costs to enable more rapid diffusion of solar energy throughout the globe. This book covers some of the materials, modeling, synthesis, and evaluation of new materials and their solar cells, which can help us reach the goal of a sustainable solar-powered future [2]. Joshua M. Pearce Guest Editor