Resumo: Unprecedented capabilities for ultra-efficient yet affordable solar electricity generation at high optical concentration stem from the confluence of progress in multi-junction photovoltaic technologies and advanced optical design. The motivation and physical bases for these advances will be reviewed, including the detailed evolution from the initial optical and solid-state inventions to megawatt-scale commercial concentrator photovoltaic power plants.

Several generations of new optics that approach the thermodynamic limit to concentration and optical tolerance, and have been tailored to the exigencies of the latest generations of concentrator solar cells, will be presented, some of which already comprise megawatt-scale installations. New generations of concentrator solar cells now exceed 40% conversion efficiency from direct sunlight to DC electricity. The physics and rationale of the strategies behind their architectures, and the unique beneficial role of high optical concentration, will also be reviewed.

Bio: Jeffrey Gordon hails from the Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel). His research and teaching interests focus on advanced optical design, the solar energy sciences, photovoltaic physics, and nanomaterial synthesis. His BA and MA are from Columbia University, and his PhD from Brown University, with a post-doc at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel).