Applied Solid State: Physics of Renewable Energy

Catalog description

Can an electric vehicle be made cheaper than a gasoline one with comparable range? How much of our energy needs can be supplied by solar energy? What is the maximum efficiency of a solar cell? Graduate-level analysis of renewable energy devices and materials that you will likely encounter in research or advanced industrial settings, with a goal of understanding their ultimate limits, current efficiencies and opportunities for improvement. The main emphasis is on electrical energy creation, conversion and storage devices - Solar Cells, Fuel Cells, Batteries, Supercapacitors and Thermoelectrics, which are areas of current research at Cornell.