Question: what makes you interested in solar cells?

Sophie Pain answered on 10 Jul 2024:

I find solar cells interesting because of how much good they can do. If we covered just 1% of the Sahara desert with solar panels, we could have enough energy to power the world! (https://blogs.kcl.ac.uk/sustainability/2021/08/what-would-happen-if-we-covered-the-sahara-desert-with-solar-panels/)

There is also a lot of interesting physics and chemistry involved in how they work. The photovoltaic effect (which is how solar cells work) was first shown to work in the 1800s, but since then the technology has progressed so much! It keeps developing as we try and find better performing materials and designs. I work on silicon photovoltaics, which is the most common type of solar cell, but there is also a lot of interesting work being done on thin film solar cells or next-generation solar cells made of a crystal called perovskite.