The

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

Photovoltaic Specialists Conference (also called PVSC) is the longest running technical conference dedicated to

photovoltaics Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...

solar cells A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physics, physical and Chemical substance, chemical phenomenon.solar power Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic e ...

. The first PVSC was in 1961 at the

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

headquarters in Washington DC. The number of conference areas have expanded and now include PV reliability and solar resource. The conference has also had many diverse and distinguished keynote speakers like Sarah Kurtz who won the conference's William Cherry Award in 2012. PVSC is also where the most notable breakthroughs in PV are often first announced, such as record Solar-cell efficiency, new technologies like

perovskite Perovskite (pronunciation: ) is a calcium titanium oxide mineral composed of calcium titanate (chemical formula ). Its name is also applied to the class of compounds which have the same type of crystal structure as (XIIA2+VIB4+X2−3), known as ...

, TOPCon, heterojunction (HJT), and tandem cells, derivation of new algorithms, and discoveries of new phenomena such as

Potential-induced degradation Potential-induced degradation (PID) is a potential-induced performance degradation in crystalline photovoltaic modules, caused by so-called stray currents. This effect may cause power loss of up to 30 percent. The cause of the harmful leakage curr ...

and light and elevated temperature induced degradation (LeTID).

William R. Cherry Award

PVSC honors scientists and researchers who have made significant contributions to the field of photovoltaics since 1980. Significant recipients are Joseph J. Loferski in 1981, Martin Green in 1990,

Richard Swanson Richard Swanson (born 1945) is an American electrical engineer and businessman, retired founder of SunPower, a solar photovoltaic cell manufacturer. Biography Swanson was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1945. He graduated in 1969 with Bachelor ...

in 2002,

Stuart Wenham Stuart Wenham (1957, Sydney – 23 December 2017) was, at the time of his death, the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics and Director of Academic Studies of the School of Photovoltaic and Renewab ...

in 2009, and Professor

Harry Atwater Harry Albert Atwater, Jr. is an American physicist and materials scientist and is the Otis Booth Leadership Chair of the Division of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology. Currently he is the Howard Hughes Pro ...

in 2019.

Women in PV Lunch

For at least the past ten years, PVSC has held a luncheon with speakers who have recognized the significant contribution of women in photovoltaics.

Middle and high school competition

For over 20 years, PVSC has inspired high school youth to engage with scientists, explore and present their concepts at the conference, and compete to win prizes. Starting in 2020, the competition was expanded to include middle school students. The format was changed to encourage more creativity by asking students to write about how solar energy will change the future in the "Solar Future Narratives" competition, and to pitch solar energy projects that could positively impact their communities in the "Solar Energy Video Pitch" competition.

Location history

Additional Reading

* www.pv-magazine.com/press-releases/keynote-speaker-selected-for-39th-ieee-photovoltaic-specialists-conference_100011234/ * www.pv-magazine.com/press-releases/call-for-papers-and-registration-open-for-39th-ieee-photovoltaic-specialists-conference_10009871/ * www.pv-magazine.com/press-releases/pvd-is-the-key-von-ardenne-presents-coating-solutions-for-heterojunction-topcon-and-tandem-cells-in-milan/ * https://solarindustrymag.com/ieee-photovoltaic-specialists-conference-calls-for-papers * https://www.pv-tech.org/tracker-terrain-loss-the-elephant-in-the-room-and-the-low-hanging-fruit/

References

{{reflist IEEE conferences Photovoltaics Solar cells Solar energy