The Future of U.S. Solar Photovoltaic Technology – Q&A – Tonio Buonassisi
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The solar photovoltaic (PV) industry continues to grow, despite intense international competition and recent margin compression.
Can innovation in technology and manufacturing allow American companies to compete and ultimately thrive in this huge but challenging market?
Professor Buonassisi will address these questions as he explores the outlook for American PV cell and module suppliers. He will begin by using an industry-validated bottoms-up cost model to compare the cost-reduction potentials of various innovative PV technologies, and how their successful development could influence manufacturing location decisions. He will also describe recent progress toward these innovative technologies, highlighting the new computational and experimental tools that have accelerated the cycle of discovery and product development — providing “sneak peeks” at the technologies that may grace rooftops in years to come. He will conclude by showcasing recent success stories of U.S. innovation.
Join us as Professor Buonassisi explains how technology innovation will open up pathways for success in the U.S. solar PV industry.
Tonio Buonassisi, MIT Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, heads an interdisciplinary research laboratory focused on photovoltaics (PV). He completed his Ph.D. in Applied Science & Technology at UC Berkeley, with additional research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems and the Max-Planck-Institute for Microstructure Physics. He is author of over a hundred journal papers, and co-developer of a dedicated course on photovoltaics.
Prof. Buonassisi invents, develops, and applies defect-engineering techniques over the entire solar cell process, from crystal growth to modules, improving the cost effectiveness of commercial and next-generation solar cells. Several of his PV innovations have been implemented in industry, including key contributions leading to the founding of solar start-ups and a research institute.
