The direct conversion of sunlight into electricity using photovoltaics is becoming an increasingly important technology for renewable energy generation as a replacement for fossil fuels, with applications from large-scale generation to roof-top solar panels and even mobile phones. But photovoltaics still accounts for only a marginal fraction of global energy supply. One of the main reasons for this is the relatively high cost of the base material silicon used in the most common type of solar cell.
↧