Intermediate Band Solar Cell — a concept that might overcome the fundamental efficiency limitations of conventional solar cells;

Silicon purification

Leads FULLSPECTRUM Integrated Project (EU)

Antonio Luque is Dr. Engineer in Telecommunication. Full Professor of Electronic Technology at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, since 1970, in which he leads the Institute of Solar Energy, he founded in 1979. His research activity is mainly devoted to the photovoltaic conversion of solar energy. He invented the bifacial cell in 1976. This cell was fabricated by Isofotón, a company of which he founded chaired in 1981 and that today is in the World top ten cell manufacturers. After this Antonjo Luque devoted part of his effort to the development of photovoltaic concentrators and he wrote, with his co-workers, in 1989 the first monograph devoted to photovoltaic concentration. More recently Prof. Luque has proposed (jointly with co-workers) the new Intermediate Band Solar Cell —a concept that might overcome the fundamental efficiency limitations of conventional solar cells— and is working in demonstrating this concept experimentally. He is also active in the problems associated to the silicon purification. He has published more 250 scientific papers as well as several books and holds 12 patents half of then in exploitation.

Antonio Luque is presently leading the Integrated Project FULLSPECTRUM http://www.fullspectrum-eu.org/ co-funded by the European Commission, that involves 19 European R&D centres for the search of novel concepts in photovoltaics. The overall goal of this Integrated Project (IP) is the better exploitation of the solar spectrum in the photovoltaic (PV) conversion of the solar energy. The conventional —single semiconductor— solar cells only convert the photons of energy close to the semiconductor bandgap effectively. Photons with less energy are not absorbed and their energy is totally wasted. Photons with too high energy only use a fraction of it.

He has frequently participated in the organization of the European and World Photovoltaic Conferences and has been Chairman of the 10 EC Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference held in Lisbon in 1991.
He has obtained, among others, the Spanish National Prize for Technology Research in 1989 and the Spanish National Prize for Technology Transfer in 2003, both granted by the King of Spain every 2 years, the Alexander-Edmond Becquerel Prize in PV research, granted by the EC, in 1992 and the King James I Award to Environmental Research delivered y the Crown Price in 1999. He is member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering and foreign member of the Russian Academy of Engineering. He is Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Jaen and by the University Carlos III of Madrid.