Skip to Main Content One of the major drawbacks of photovoltaic
systems is the high generation cost. To address this problem,
the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiated a
study to create a thousand 10 cm2 solar cells with over 50%
efficiency, providing 500 mW in full sunlight, with reasonable
manufacturing costs. Called the Very High Efficiency Solar Cell
(VHESC) program, it hopes to take advantage of recent advances
in nanotechnology by using engineered biological molecules to
guide the assembly of inorganic materials into regular 3D
structures, with dimensional and assembly control unattainable
using current technologies. The program also hopes to benefit
from the recent introduction of tools and processes to design
and cost-effectively fabricate small-feature, complex, broad-
spectrum non-imaging optics. Date of Publication: Feb. 2006