Current solar power technology has little chance to compete with fossil fuels or large electric grids. Today’s solar cells are simply not efficient enough and are currently too expensive to manufacture for large-scale electricity generation. However, potential advancements in nanotechnology may open the door to the production of cheaper and more efficient solar cells.

Photovoltaics is the diode action in a solar cell for generating electricity from light and today it is fast becoming an important product to meet the goals of green revolution. Presently the solar cell market is dominated by wafer based crystalline Si cells. Unfortunately, single crystal solar cells are very costly. Further these solar cells are simply not efficient enough and are currently difficult and expensive for large-scale electricity generation. Attempts are being made to reduce the cost by using thinner thin-film process with higher conversion efficiency. In the course of developing thin-film technology researchers have stumbled upon the opportunity of using nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is expected to will play an important role in the future to increase efficiency and significantly lower cost.

Nanotechnology is considered as the key for materials innovation and technological progress in almost all branches of engineering. Nanotechnology offers the long desired cross-cutting technologies that hold the secrets for decisive technological breakthroughs in the energy sector, particularly for solar cells, thus making significant contributions to sustainable energy supply towards the green revolution.

Nanotechnology applications have demonstrated surprising results in many fields of medicine and electronics by showing cost-effective and efficient technology solutions. Magnolia Solar research shows the most promising and cost effective solutions towards the development of very high efficiency solar cells.