Are We Witnessing The Appearance of a Breakthrough in Photovoltaics?

Antonio Luque received the Dr. Eng. degree in Telecommunication in 1969. He has been Full Professor of electronic technology at the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain, since 1970, and has led the Instituto de Energía Solar, 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 he created in 1982, today present in more than 50 countries. More recently he has proposed the new intermediate band solar cell —a concept that might overcome the fundamental efficiency limitations of conventional solar cells— and is working on demonstrating this concept experimentally. He has published more than 250 scientific papers in the English language as well as some books and holds 13 patents.

Prof. Luque received the Spanish National Prize for Technology in 1989, granted by the King of Spain, the Alexander-Edmond Becquerel Prize in PV research, granted by the EC, in 1992, the William Cherry Prize, granted by the IEEE in 2006, also for PV research, the King James I award to environmental research granted y the Crown Price in 1999 and the awards Torres Quevedo and Juan de la Cierva. He belongs to the Academies of Engineering of Spain, Russia and Belorussia and is Doctor Honoris Causa by the Universities of Jaén and Carlos III of Madrid and Member of Honour of the Ioffe Institute in St. Petersbourg.