Global green energy conversion revolution in 21st century through solid state devices

Rising demands of energy in emerging economies coupled with the green house gas emissions related problems around the globe have provided a unique opportunity of exploiting the advantages offered by solid state devices (photovoltaic devices, thermoelectric devices, light emitting devices etc.) for green energy conversion. Similar to cell phones, power generation by photovoltaics (PV) can reach over two billion people worldwide who have no access to clean energy. Only silicon based PV devices meet the criterion of clean energy conversion (abundance of raw material and no environmental health and safety issues). Using larger size glass substrates and manufacturing techniques similar to the one used by liquid crystal display industry, the manufacturing cost of amorphous silicon thin films of $1/wart can be achieved in the next one or two years. This will open a huge market for grid connected PV systems and related markets. With further R&D, this approach can provide a manufacturing cost goal of $0.50/watt in the next 10 years. At this cost level, PV electricity generation is competitive with any other technology and PV generation can be a dominant electricity generation technology in the 21^st century. In the areas of thermoelectric devices and light emitting diodes, more focused research is required to penetrate the market in a dominant way. Based on silicon CMOS technology, ambient energy harvesting will create its own niche market driven by the desire to produce communication, sensing and computing integrated systems with small form factor and no battery.