MRS: Solar's hot, or not
This meeting has seen loads of talks about solar power. Materials science can help harvest energy from the sun in many ways. I have learned about conventional silicon, with David Carlson from BP Solar predicting that crystalline silicon, despite its expense, will continue to dominate the photovoltaics market for some time. He also offered a gloomy prediction for solar start-ups. "A lot of companies won't survive" he says. "there are too many, that's just not stable," especially in the current economic climate.
I also learned about a process called up conversion. This is where a material can change the light that hits it from a fairly un-useful (to a silicon solar cell's band gap) reddish tinge, into blue or green. Much more helpful, apparently.
I also saw mention of plasmons - strange particles made when light and matrter interact at the surface of a metal. Usually the preserve of the optics community, Harry Atwater from Caltech says that these quasiparticles could be used to carry light in ultra thin films of photovoltaic material.
These sessions were incredibly well attended. Standing room only for Carlson. Maybe that miracle that Susan Solomon, from the IPCC, hoped for at the start of the week will come out of some of this work. If it isn't here, then I don't know where it might be.
I am flying back to London this evening. So farewell for now!
