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5
Optoelectronics and Photovoltaics
Beyond their use as catalysts, critical materials have wide- As was shown in Figure 2-5, the rare earth elements are
spread applications in other technologies, including technolo- reasonably abundant; they lie between the 25th and 75th per-
gies that could undergo rapid expansion in the future. Many centile in terms of natural abundance, with cerium being the
critical elements are used in the display and solid-state lighting most abundant rare earth and lutetium the least. Quoting
(SSL) industries. They also are components in many photo- Gschneidner (2011), Shinar noted that rare earth elements
voltaic technologies, which are expected to undergo continued are found all over the globe, not just in China, which holds
rapid growth. Several speakers noted that research to reduce about 31 percent of the known reserves. In fact, the United
the quantities of these materials needed in new technologies States has one of the historically highest-grade deposits in
is important, but so is the development of new supplies and the world, located at Mountain Pass, California.
improved refining and recycling capabilities. In 1970, China possessed 75 percent of the known rare
earth reserves, referring to yttrium plus the lanthanides. At
that point, China demonstrated a strong presence in the rare
CRITICAL MATERIALS IN OPTOELECTRONICS
earth market. However, in the 40 years since then, China’s
Rare earth elements are used widely in the field of opto- share of the world reserves of these elements fell to about
electronics. Europium is a key element in red phosphors, 30 percent as new deposits were discovered even though
mostly in the form of europium-doped yttrium oxide. China grew its reserves through discovery by some 290 per-
Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers are critical components in cent (Gschneidner, 2011).
fiber optics, and erbium, neodymium, and holmium are Recently, said Shinar, China changed its policies, intro-
important dopants in yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) lasers. ducing production quotas, export quotas, and export taxes;
White light-emitting diodes (LEDs) will soon be the pre- enforcing environmental legislation; and refusing to grant
dominant user of indium in terms of volume, though ITO new rare earth mining licenses. In addition, China announced
will continue to find use in the photovoltaic, display, and it will no longer export rare earths because of rapid growth
SSL industries. Chelated heavy metal and rare earth metals, of internal markets and limited reserves, especially the heavy
such as palladium, platinum, iridium, and europium, also are rare earth elements gadolinium through lutetium. As a result,
used in the display and SSL industries. the price for rare earth materials and products containing
rare earth has risen to the level at which mining companies
and producers outside of China can make a profit. In 2009,
Some Lesser Known Facts About Critical Materials
estimated non-Chinese production of rare earth oxides was
Though it was noted earlier in the workshop that the 4 kilotons (Gschneidner, 2011). Also, the smuggling of rare
rare earth elements are not all that rare, what is not widely earth elements from China appears to be an important source
appreciated, said Joseph Shinar, is that there is only a rough of these metals, Shinar said.
correlation between abundance and price. If the correlation Another unappreciated fact about the rare earth elements
was strong, iridium would be two orders of magnitude more is only about 57 percent of the cerium produced today is
expensive than gold, while in fact it is hardly more expensive used. The reason for this is that cerium must first be removed
at all. from rare earth flow streams before the other elements can be
29
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30 THE ROLE OF THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES IN FINDING ALTERNATIVES TO CRITICAL RESOURCES
isolated via a countercurrent liquid-liquid extraction process. only in museums, red phosphors are still used extensively
As a result, cerium is overproduced by about 50,000 tons per in compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). And hot on the heels
year and must be stored at a real cost (Gschneidner, 2011). As of CFLs are white LEDs for solid-state lighting.” But even
expected, the rare earth industry would welcome new large though the demand for europium and yttrium will continue to
cerium applications, but so, too, would all other users of rare grow, proven reserves of these metals are outpacing expected
earth elements because a balanced cerium market would sig- increases in demand.
nificantly reduce the prices of the other rare earth elements. Erbium accounts for about 0.5 percent of mined rare
Shinar observed that rare earths can be separated into three earths, and the demand of 700 tons of oxide per year is bal-
categories—surplus, balanced, and tight. Only neodymium, anced with supply. Erbium is used as a colorant and as a
terbium, and dysprosium fall into the tight-supply category. stabilizer for zirconium in jewelry, but its most critical use
Other than cerium and holmium, which is actually one of is in the repeaters used in optical fiber networks that operate
the rarest of rare earth metals, supplies and demands for the with a carrier wavelength of 1.5 microns. These repeaters,
other rare earths are well balanced. It is also important, he which are optically pumped lasers, are incorporated into fiber
added, to remember that the proven reserves of rare earths networks every few kilometers to boost the optical signal.
are growing rapidly. Shinar noted the demand for these lasers may slowly wane
The solution to the expectation that supplies will become as wireless communications steadily grow.
tight as a result of China’s new policies is to increase mining, A niche application for rare earths is in neodymium,
Shinar stated. That, in fact, is happening because MolyCorp erbium, and holmium-doped YAG lasers. YAG lasers, which
is investing in reopening and expanding its operations at are very robust, efficient solid-state lasers, are staples in opti-
Mountain Pass. Workforce training also will be important. cal electronic labs and are used extensively in spectroscopy
One lesser-known fact about the critical elements is that the and ultrafast spectroscopy. Holmium-doped YAG lasers
supply of ITO, the quintessential transparent conducting mate- also are used extensively by urologists in laser lithotripsy.
rial, is totally dependent on zinc production, and the demand Though these are niche applications, they are critical ones
for zinc is not expected to grow much in the future because of nonetheless. Of the three rare earths used in these lasers,
macroeconomic factors in China, Canada, Korea, and Japan. only neodymium is in tight supply. Though it represents
Annual production of indium is approximately 900 tons, with 16 percent of mined rare earth oxides, it is used extensively
primary production of 600 tons and recycling and stock- in the neodymium-iron-boron magnets incorporated in wind
piles providing the rest. Recycling occurs primarily through turbines. Of the 23 kilotons of neodymium oxides mined,
removing the thin ITO layer coated on glass used in LCD 2.8 kilotons go into wind turbines alone. Holmium represents
monitors, flat-screen televisions, and other display devices. about 0.1 percent of mined rare earth oxides, and its supply
Demand for ITO, which accounts for 85 percent of all of 100 tons of oxide per year exceeds demand.
indium demand, is expected to grow by 15 percent per year Indium demand is expected to grow rapidly with the
over the next 3 years. Emerging uses are in copper-indium- development of what are called indium group II-V devices
gallium-selenium solar cells, electrode-less lamps, mercury for use in the street lighting market. These devices, which
alloy replacements, and nuclear reactor control rods. Though are based on new technology for growing high-quality
indium prices are much the same as they were 5 years ago, indium-doped gallium nitride, are superior replacements for
the price has spiked thanks to China’s recent crackdown on fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lamps in overhanging
small lead and zinc refiners amid environmental concerns. street lights. The City of Anchorage, Alaska, estimates that
replacing 25 percent of its streetlights with these new lamps
will reduce energy costs by 50 percent and save the city some
Critical Metals
$360,000 per year. In addition, maintenance costs should
Shifting his focus from the general to the specific, Shinar drop given that these bulbs have an expected lifetime of
spoke next about europium red phosphors, particularly 100,000 hours—over 11 years—compared with 5,000 hours
europium-doped yttrium oxide, or yttria. Europium accounts for fluorescent and high-pressure sodium lamps. Perhaps
for about 0.3 percent of mined rare earth metals, and the more importantly, the new lamps improve visibility dramati-
demand of about 400 tons of oxide per year is balanced by cally because of superior color rendering.
supply. Yttrium represents 6 percent of mined rare earths, Indium is also used in ITO photovoltaic devices, displays,
and its supply and demand are balanced as well, at about and SSL industries. Shinar focused his remarks on organic
8.5 kilotons of oxide per year. LEDs (OLEDs), which first appeared in a commercial prod-
“The main use of red phosphors is as the R in RGB,” said uct in 1998 and is now making major inroads in display
Shinar. He explained that ytrium doped with 4 to 6.5 per- devices. In 2007, Sony introduced an 11-inch OLED televi-
cent europium produces an intense red phosphorescence sion, but at a cost of $2,500 it was not a big selling item.
at 611 nanometers (nm) (Sylvania, 2010). “Even though Since then, at least one company announced it was introduc-
RGB monitors and televisions are soon going to be found ing a much bigger OLED television, but it has yet to appear
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31
OPTOELECTRONICS AND PHOTOVOLTAICS
Heavy Metals
on the market. OLED displays can have contrast ratios of
1,000,000:1, but LED technology has not been standing
Shinar noted that heavy and rare earth metal atom
still, and experts continue to argue about which technology
chelates, using palladium, platinum, iridium, and europium,
produces better displays.
are going to continue to be important in the display and SSL
One application of OLED with great potential in the
industries because they produce the best phosphorescent
market is the use of white OLED (WOLED) in lighting
emitters. As he explained, “In all OLEDs, injection into
panels. Potentially, these devices can be more efficient
the emitting layer results in 25 percent singlet excitons and
than fluorescent lights and produce more accurate color
75 percent triplet excitons, and in fluorescence only the
rendering. In addition, WOLED devices can be flexible and
singlet excitons are radiative.” As a result, the maximum
can even become mirrors when turned off. Today’s state-
internal quantum efficiency is only 25 percent. Heavy metal
of-the-art devices produce 87 lumens/watt (lumens/W) at
chelate-based phosphors, however, are radiative with triplet
1,000 candelas/m2. The goal is to produce devices that gen-
excitons, so their use is critical to achieve high internal
erate 300 lumens/W.
quantum efficiency for any OLED device.
ITO is essential to all of this work because it is the pre-
In fact, when researchers from the Universal Display
ferred transparent conducting electrode in thin-film photo-
Corporation successfully fabricated phosphorescent OLEDs
voltaics, and it is the only transparent conducting electrode
using heavy metal chelates, they boosted internal quantum
in all LCDs and OLEDs. Researchers are making advances
efficiencies into the 90 to 100 percent range. This suc-
in developing transparent zinc oxide and aluminum oxide
cess, said Shinar, explains why this company is now worth
electrodes, but those efforts are not yet close to producing a
between $500 million and $1 billion.
commercially viable product.
Shinar noted that iridium, because of its use in these
One of the most promising alternatives is poly(3,4-
phosphors, should be considered a critical metal. It is the
ethylenedioxythiophene): poly(styrenesulfanate) (PEDOT:PSS).
least abundant of the platinum-group elements, yet today it is
Though this material has been studied for over 10 years, the
priced lower than gold. Major commercial sources of iridium
recent development of a fabrication process that creates
are found in South Africa, Russia, and Canada. Iridium is
multilayered PEDOT:PSS devices has produced a break-
difficult to refine and is produced in small quantities, but
through in organic photovoltaic and OLED performance
supplies have increased in response to a four-fold increase
(Kim et al., 2011). The new process involves blending these
in demand to 334,000 ounces in 2010, largely a result of
polymers with polyethylene glycol (PEG), immersing the
the inclusion of iridium crucibles in backlit LED televisions
blend in PEG, and then annealing. Even though transmis-
and the increased demand for iridium-tipped automobile
sion goes down with each additional layer, sheet resistance
sparkplugs. “The sharp increase in demand and the small,
also goes down, and that, said Shinar, is important. These
relatively illiquid market for iridium had a significant impact
PEDOT:PSS sheets are smoother than ITO, which is good
on price,” said Shinar. In August 2011, iridium was priced at
for OLEDs, and their refractive index is lower, which reduces
$1,050 per ounce (eBullionGuide.com, 2011).
internal reflection and increases light output.
Efforts to develop room-temperature phosphors free of
In fact, said Shinar, multilayer PEDOT:PSS OLEDs are
heavy metals have begun, but the best results so far still fall
up to twice as efficient as a standard ITO OLED. And in
short of the mark. Shinar wondered if more research in this
more recent work, which his group has not yet published,
direction should be initiated. One possibility would be to
a two-layer PEDOT:PSS OLED produced a maximal lumi-
exploit triplet-triplet annihilation to produce singlet excitons
nous power efficiency of 100 lumens/W without coupling
that could increase the internal quantum efficiency well
enhancement tricks. “With microlens arrays, which typically
beyond 25 percent.
can double the out-coupling enhancement, these devices
In closing, Shinar noted that “for optoelectronics, the
would be beyond 200 lumens/W,” said Shinar.
critical in critical resources is questionable. There is no
It is important to remember, though, that ITO devices are
single silver bullet because the situation has improved, and
a moving target with continually improving performance.
instead there are many potential silver bullets for different
Recently, for example, chlorinated ITO-based OLEDs
problems.”
showed impressive efficiencies (Helander et al., 2011).
The power efficiency reported for these devices exceeded
KEY MINERALS IN PHOTOVOLTAICS
200 lumens/W, which is approaching the Department of
Energy’s goal of 300 lumens/W. Not too long ago, this was
One reason that PV technology is such an exciting area
considered a pipe dream, said Shinar. The external quantum
today, said Ken Zweibel, is that solar energy is such an abun-
efficiency for chlorinated ITO is “an amazing 53 percent,”
dant resource (Figure 5-1). The sheer size of the solar energy
he added. “For every two electrons you inject into the OLED
“reserve” dwarfs all other potential sources of renewable
you get one photon out, and not just out, but in the direction
energy and is more than an order of magnitude larger than all
you want.”
coal, uranium, petroleum, and natural gas reserves combined.
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32 THE ROLE OF THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES IN FINDING ALTERNATIVES TO CRITICAL RESOURCES
finite
renewable
25-70 WIND
per year
215
Waves1
0.2-2 total
SOLAR 10
Natural Gas
23,000 TWy/year
3 -11 per year
240
OTEC
total
Petroleum
2009 World energy 2 – 6 per year
consumption
Biomass
16 TWy/year
3 – 4 per year
90-300
HYDRO Total
0.3 – 2 per year
TIDES Geothermal
0.3 per year
2050: 28 TWy
Uranium
900
Total reserve
© R. Perez et al.
COAL
FIGURE 5-1 Solar energy dwarfs all other sources of renewable and finite energy sources.
SOURCE: Perez (2009); Perez et al. (2011).
Furthermore, an important characteristic of solar energy has Over 35 years, each doubling in sales volume has produced
been its historical reduction in price, Zweibel explained. a 20 percent drop in price. Today, said Zweibel, “prices are
Figure 5-1 like a stone, with the cost now down to $1.30 or
A plot of the price of the global average solar energy power dropping
taken from sourceper watt for the modules, whereas only a few years
$1.40 (Perez)
module in constant dollars versus cumulative sales shows
a consistent relationship from 1976 to 2009 (Figure 5-2). vector editable closer to $3 per watt.”
ago, it was
At the same time, worldwide photovoltaic module pro-
duction has risen exponentially over the past decade, with
China’s entry into the market providing a huge boost in world
output. In large part because of increased production from
China, output nearly doubled in 2010. China first entered
the market in 2006 and now accounts for over half of the
world’s production of PV modules. Chinese production has
grown so quickly that prices worldwide have plummeted. As
a result, margins are now very thin, and many PV module
manufacturers, including those in China, are facing financial
difficulties.
The beneficiaries of the plummeting cost of PV modules
are those who install PV systems, and as production has
increased so has the number of PV installations (Figure 5-3).
In 2010 alone, the total peak megawatts installed more than
doubled, with Germany leading this dramatic uptake in PV
use. In 2011, growth in the amount of PV installed returned to
FIGURE 5-2 Between 1976 and 2009, the price of solar energy
more normal levels, which accounts for the glut in supplies.
power modules has declined as cumulative sales increased as a
In terms of cumulative installations, PV now produces
result of aggressive pricing for market share.
about 40 gigawatts (GW) of power worldwide. Growth in
SOURCE: Paula Mints, Principal Analyst, Navigant Solar Services
output is similar to that seen decades earlier when natural gas
Program, March 8, 2010.
R02178
Figure 5-2
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33
OPTOELECTRONICS AND PHOTOVOLTAICS
FIGURE 5-3 Production of photovoltaics has exploded over the past decade. (Consider U.S. solar cell (PV) and module manufacturing
market share.)
SOURCE: PV News and Navigating Consulting, http://energy.gov/articles/competition-worth-winning [accessed December 22, 2011].
and nuclear power started becoming significant components but less competitive are amorphous and thin-film silicon on
of the energy infrastructure. glass. Emerging technologies that are less assured of success
Germany, said Zweibel, is a special case and is far ahead include organic dye-based “Graetzel” cells and plastic cells.
of every other country in the world in terms of PV uptake. The most important materials that are needed to produce
PV now supplies about 10 percent of peak energy use in the solar power today include silicon, silver, tellurium, and
middle of the day, or about 3 percent of the country’s total cadmium, with steel, aluminum, and copper being used in the
energy usage. Using comparable measures, wind provides contacts and housings and other bulk components. Emerging
about twice the total amount of power as solar does in technologies could require significant quantities of indium,
Germany. selenium, molybdenum, gallium, germanium, arsenic, and
Photovoltaics are semiconductors operating at about ruthenium. Many other metals, such as nickel, zinc, and tin,
10 percent efficiency. It takes 10 km2 of PV to produce are used in minor amounts.
1 GW of power. For thinner PV modules, that translates into There are a number of bottlenecks. For example, the risk
10 cubic meters of crystalline silicon per gigawatt of power. and timing of investment, including the unpredictability and
The Department of Energy’s Solar Vision calls for PV to rapid alteration in demand, have led to silicon shortages.
account for 10 percent of U.S. electricity output by 2030, “Because of the capital cost for making purified silicon,
which would be approximately 600 GW, compared to today’s there was a time when the silicon purification industry was
output of around 20 GW. The International Energy Agency out of sync with the demand from solar,” said Zweibel. The
predicts that solar will generate 50 percent of the world’s demand for silicon by the solar industry is now larger than
electricity by 2050, though Zweibel found this figure hard the demand from all the other semiconductors in the world.
to accept. “That transition was hard for traditional silicon purification
companies to grasp.”
Other bottlenecks involve extraction of the elements
Meeting Future Demand
needed to meet growing demands from the solar industry.
Zweibel listed a number of key technologies that will If there is not enough of a particular element available to
play a major role in the future growth of PV as an electricity meet the immediate or short-term future demand, it may not
source. Crystalline silicon currently holds about 90 percent be economically feasible to increase extraction in a timely
of the market, with cadmium telluride accounting for the manner. Similarly, there may not be refining capability to
remaining 10 percent. Emerging and promising materials meet increased demand, or it may not be economical to refine
include copper indium selenide alloys with gallium and ores with low concentrations of the needed element. Finally,
sulfur, and type III-V multi-junction semiconductors for supplies may exist, but they may not be accessible for pur-
concentrator-containing solar cells. Commercially viable chase because of market or political forces.
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34 THE ROLE OF THE CHEMICAL SCIENCES IN FINDING ALTERNATIVES TO CRITICAL RESOURCES
Specific materials have unique issues. The availability per year, molybdenum 18,000 metric tons per year, and
of coated glass substrates has been a problem for short selenium 9,600 tons per year.
periods of time. Materials such as tellurium used in cadmium Research may yield solutions to these impending supply
telluride, indium used in copper indium selenide alloys, and problems, Zweibel said. If not, the most important recent
gallium could have price and supply issues at mid- and long- commercial PV technology—the development of cadmium
term time frames. Of these, indium is also used in significant telluride—will have an uncertain future because of tellurium
amounts in liquid crystal displays. availability. In addition, the most important emerging com-
Today, materials such as tellurium, indium, gallium, mercial technology—copper indium gallium selenide—will
molybdenum, and selenium add between $0.002/W to have an uncertain future because of indium, selenium, and
$0.03/W to PV costs, with silver adding $0.09/W, numbers gallium availability. It is essential, he said, to find new sup-
that Zweibel characterized as being small. However, the costs plies and develop new refining capabilities for tellurium and
of each of these materials can rise dramatically in response indium. Otherwise, all scenarios to meet demand for PV
to even small changes in supply and demand. Given that will be highly challenging. “The lack of U.S. commitment
$0.10/W to $0.20/W separates the best PV modules from the to extraction and refining inside our borders is a concern for
least competitive modules, changes as small as $0.03/W can U.S. PV competitiveness,” Zweibel concluded.
be significant. “Something that goes from 3 cents to 15 cents
per watt could be prohibitive,” said Zweibel.
DISCUSSION
In response to a question about the role of chemistry in
Using Less Material
developing new materials, Shinar said that chemistry lies at
There are various strategies for reducing the amount of the heart of developing WOLEDs and OLEDs, since each
material needed to produce electricity. One approach is to use of these devices depends on complex organic chemistry and
thinner layers of material, though that reduces the amount of polymer chemistry. As an example, he said that chemists
light absorbed. That problem can be solved by adding back- have been studying polyanilines as transparent conducting
side mirrors, which can enable the thickness of the semi- organics and are trying to solve stability issues. The problem
conductor layer to be reduced in some cases by a factor of 10. is not that chemists do not want to work on developing these
Boosting device efficiency reduces the amount of material materials but that there is not much funding available to do
needed. Doubling the efficiency of a device means using half so. In terms of inorganic materials, research is proceeding
of the material to generate the same amount of electricity. slowly, and these materials are hard to develop.
Recycling, both internally in terms of manufacturing waste In response to a question about potential environmental
and externally as far as recovering materials from old mod- issues associated with the widespread use of cadmium,
ules, can have a significant impact on supplies. Zweibel said that, because the manufacturers take the mod-
Already, such strategies have played a role in reducing ules back at the end of their lifespan and recycle all of the
material demands from PV manufacturing. For example, the cadmium telluride, the system is actually a closed loop. Also,
cadmium telluride layer has been decreased from 3 microns cadmium telluride is much less dangerous than cadmium.
to 0.67 microns with little difficulty in light absorption. Thin- For those reasons, there has been no backlash against the use
ner copper indium selenide alloys—0.75 microns compared of very thin, very stable layers of cadmium telluride in PV.
to 2.0 microns—have reduced demand for indium, selenide, Zweibel replied to a question about the impact of the
and gallium. Silver replacements are now being tested, and dramatically lower price for silicon cells on the technol-
Zweibel predicted that silver will be replaced eventually in ogy development by noting that copper indium selenide
PV modules. technology is already suffering a good deal of push-back
By 2030, such efforts could reduce the per-watt demand for because it has to make price goals that have moved down so
rare metals. Zweibel predicted that tellurium use could drop quickly. He added that, although he once thought that thin
from 100 to 16 metric tons/GW. Indium usage could drop from films would dominate the future of PV, “I no longer think
30 to 9.4 metric tons/GW. Gallium usage could fall from 8 to that, and I would say that it is going to be a horserace for
2.3 metric tons/GW. the next 20 years.”
Although such reductions are important, demand will In response to a question about mining bismuth telluride
nonetheless soar if the world truly meets the goal of get- as a significant source of tellurium, Zweibel noted that there
ting 10 percent of its electricity from PV. Reaching this are places in the world where this mineral is accessible
goal implies 600 GW/year annual production, which would and where the tellurium is highly concentrated, as high as
require 10,000 metric tons of telluium per year, compared to 17 percent in at least one instance. These deposits are likely
120 metric tons used today. The total availability of tellurium to change the supply issue dramatically when the current pro-
is about 2,000 metric tons per year today. Indium use would duction sources—copper, zinc, lead, and gold mining—start
reach 6,000 metric tons per year, gallium 1,500 metric tons proving inadequate. He noted, too, that tellurium is the most
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35
OPTOELECTRONICS AND PHOTOVOLTAICS
abundant metal in the universe with an atomic weight over of $2.50/W to $3.50/W, with the module’s cost running at
40 Daltons, even though it is depleted in the Earth’s crust $1.00/W to $1.50/W. For residential applications, installation
(Cohen, 1984). There are large deposits in undersea ridges, costs are higher. The Germans have worked out the most effi-
and some companies are starting to show interest in undersea cient installation methods, and their costs run about $1.00/W
mining at these ridges, which are rich in many other materials to $1.25/W with total system costs at $3.50/W. Residential
as well (Hein et al., 2001). installation costs also run higher because of the soft costs
In response to a question about the role of chemistry in involved, such as marketing and sales. He noted that the
developing new materials, Zweibel said that chemists play a United States can learn much from the German experience.
critical role in two areas. In the development of mainstream Finally, when he was asked about the role of chemists
PVs, the most effective researchers in this area are chemists. in the development of photovoltaics, Zweibel said that they
It is chemists who develop the understanding of how mate- are at the center of that process, despite the substantial
rials behave during processing and about the fundamental involvement of electrical engineers, physicists, and others.
behavior of the materials themselves. The second area where It is “important to understand how that chemistry happens
chemistry is important is in manufacturing, which is really both in terms of the processing and in terms of the nature
a chemical engineering problem and relies heavily on the of the material itself.” Chemists also are needed in the
knowledge of chemical engineers. large-scale manufacturing of photovoltaics, which is very
When asked about installation costs, Zweibel said that dependent on chemical engineering. “Chemists are really
large-scale installations are largely mechanized and that the the heart and soul, to a great degree, of this technology and
cost per watt can be as low as $0.20/W out of a total cost of photovoltaics.”
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