Dear Friends of Silicon Photovoltaics,

After three successful events, the SiliconPV conference has established itself! It is a conference from scientists for scientists with a focus on the physical and chemical understanding of the results observed.  There was a great need to have an event in which the more fundamental aspects of silicon photovoltaics would be discussed and Silicon PV fulfills that need. It is therefore my pleasure to invite you to SiliconPV 2014 on March 25-27, 2014 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands.

Currently silicon-based photovoltaics is the main PV technology and I expect that this will continue to be the case for many years to come. The technology has a huge potential for further cost reduction and higher conversion efficiencies. In most parts of the world grid parity has been reached due to the recent price reduction for commercial PV modules. On the other hand, in laboratory and pilot line environments, cell efficiencies above 20% have been reached for different cell concepts. The challenge of the PV community is to combine the two: high efficiencies at low cost in large volumes. Reduction in material consumption and the use of low-cost materials at cell- and module level while maintaining the high efficiency and good reliability will be the key to reaching this goal. Therefore, innovative technologies to enable future cell- and module architectures are needed and will be presented and extensively discussed during the SiliconPV 2014 conference.

SiliconPV 2014, the 4th International Conference on Silicon Photovoltaics, is a non-profit event and, as stated above, from scientists for scientists. The 2014 edition will be hosted by the Energy research Center of the Netherlands (ECN) and will be held in the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. ‘s-Hertogenbosch (literally ‘the Duke’s forest’) is a city in the southern part of the Netherlands (about 80 km south of Amsterdam and about 30 km north of Eindhoven) and the capital of the province of North-Brabant. It was founded in the medieval era and has nowadays about 140,000 inhabitants. The beautiful and gothic Saint John’s Cathedral (13th century) is one of the famous points of interest of the city.

SiliconPV is a three day conference with only plenary sessions and fully concentrated on science and technology. The scientific committee will set up a high-quality program based on abstracts submitted from all over the world, and will create an inspiring atmosphere to stimulate the exchange of scientific and technological information between you and your colleagues.

I invite you to share your most recent results during SiliconPV 2014, and am looking forward to welcoming you to ‘s-Hertogenbosch.

Arthur Weeber
Chairman SiliconPV 2014