Solar photovoltaics have spread widely in recent years as costs have plummeted. They makes up less than 1% of the electricity market today but could be the world’s cheapest energy source by 2030. Dr Paul Coxon explores how the solar revolution began, how solar cells work, and how scientists are now harnessing natural structures and materials to make them more efficient.

Dr Paul Coxon is a physicist in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge. His research focuses light capturing materials and has developed new low-cost methods to produce extremely black silicon surfaces for anti-reflection coatings in photovoltaic cells. - See more at: http://www.sciencefestival.cam.ac.uk/events/solar-energy-past-present-and-future-limited-returns-available-door#sthash.nljWw6V8.dpuf