The optical conversion of incoherent solar radiation into a bright, coherent laser beam enables the application of nonlinear optics to solar energy conversion and storage. Here, we present an architecture for solar pumped lasers that uses a luminescent solar concentrator to decouple the conventional trade-off between solar absorption efficiency and the mode volume of the optical gain material. ...

This paper proposes a hybrid switching technique for a domestic PV system with AC-module architecture. In this PV system, independent control of PV modules, which are directly connected to DC terminals of a single-phase cascaded multilevel inverter, makes module-level MPPT possible to extract maximum available solar energy, especially in partial shading conditions. As one of the main contributi...

Solar energy has the capacity to fulfill global human energy demands in an environmentally and socially responsible manner, provided efficient, low-cost systems can be developed for its capture, conversion, and storage. Toward these ends, a molecular-based understanding of the fundamental principles and mechanistic details of energy conversion in photosynthesis is indispensable. This review add...

To meet increasing energy needs, while limiting greenhouse gas emissions over the coming decades, power capacity on a large scale will need to be provided from renewable sources, with solar expected to play a central role. While the focus to date has been on electricity generation via photovoltaic (PV) cells, electricity production currently accounts for only about one-third of total primary en...

We compare the efficiency of thin film photonic crystal solar cells consisting of conical pores and nanowires. Solving both Maxwell's equations and the semiconductor drift-diffusion in each geometry, we identify optimal junction and contact positions and study the influence of bulk and surface recombination losses on solar cell efficiency. We find that using only 1 lm of silicon, sculpted in th...

We review recent progress towards increasing solar cell efficiencies beyond the Shockley-Queisser efficiency limit. Four main approaches are highlighted: multi-junction cells, intermediate-band cells, hot carrier cells and spectrum conversion. Multi-junction cells use multiple solar cells that selectively absorb different regions of the solar spectrum. Intermediateband cells use one junction wi...

Solar thermal fuels, which reversibly store solar energy in molecular bonds, are a tantalizing prospect for clean, renewable, and transportable energy conversion/storage. However, large-scale adoption requires enhanced energy storage capacity and thermal stability. Here we present a novel solar thermal fuel, composed of azobenzene-functionalized carbon nanotubes, with the volumetric energy dens...

Natural photosynthesis harnesses solar energy to convert CO2 and water to value-added chemical products for sustaining life. We present a hybrid bioinorganic approach to solar-to-chemical conversion in which sustainable electrical and/or solar input drives production of hydrogen from water splitting using biocompatible inorganic catalysts. The hydrogen is then used by living cells as a source o...

Solar energy harvesting is largely limited by the spectral sensitivity of the employed energy conversion system, where usually large parts of the solar spectrum do not contribute to the harvesting scheme, and where, of the contributing fraction, the full potential of each photon is not efficiently used in the generation of electrical or chemical energy. Extrinsic sensitization through photolumi...

Because solar energy is available in large excess relative to current rates of energy consumption, effective conversion of this renewable yet intermittent resource into a transportable and dispatchable chemical fuel may ensure the goal of a sustainable energy future. However, low conversion efficiencies, particularly with CO(2) reduction, as well as utilization of precious materials have limite...