Climate change is almost never far from the environmental news agenda and the question of how to transition to a low-carbon economy in the face of an impending peak oil crisis is a serious problem for public policy. Solar power has often been touted as an answer, but its image is plagued by common perceptions that it is either expensive or inefficient or even both.
Today on The Provocateur I talk to Dr Jon Major, an EPSRC Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool, whose research aims to solve both these issues at once. Using the unique properties of a particular semiconductor called cadmium telluride, he and his team hope to develop solar cell technologies that are both cost-effective and also extremely energy efficient. Among other things, we discuss the nuts and bolts of how solar cells actually work, developments in solar technology since the 1950s, the incredible uses of solar power in developing countries and what the future may hold for solar power as a real low-carbon breakthrough.
You can listen to the podcast here:
The Provocateur 