About 170 years has been passed since the concept of photovoltaic has been suggested by French physicist Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel. Now the highest efficiency of solar cell has reached up to 44% by III-V multi-junction solar cells with concentrator. Those multi-junction solar cells are suitable as energy source for spaceships. On the other hand, the cell efficiency of solar cell for electric power generation as energy source for Earth has is going to be saturated although commercial solar cell efficiency is around 20%. In the part 1 of this article, the history of III-V multi-junction solar cells which have been adapted for spaceships is explained and in the part 2, new approach for the improvement of cell efficiency is suggested as the energy source for Earth.

Since the development of 9.7% efficient long-term stable solid state perovskite solar cell in 2012, intensive study on perovskite solar cell has been performed. As a result, power conversion efficiency (PCE) has reached 20.1%. In-dept study on perovskite light absorber enabled understanding of origin of superb photovoltaic performance of perovskite solar cell. In this article, historical evolutions of perovskite solar cell along with key physical properties enabling high PCE are presented. Several important results for development of high efficiency perovskite solar cell are introduced. Finally, in-present research issues and future direction for solving these issues are discussed.

Since recent electronics technologies have been developed and they tend to spend huge amount of electrical power, self-powered electronics have been paid attention worldwide. To realize self-powered electronics, energy harvesting technology, which generally converts ambient energy into electrical energy, has to be introduced. Among numerous energy sources, mechanical, thermal, and electrostatic event would be of broad interest in field of energy harvesting. Here, this article introduces the promising alternative energy concepts of nanogenerator including piezoelectric, triboelectric, and hybrid types. With these nanogenerators, we are able to apply onto not only self-powered system, but expect these open green energy market.

Thermolectric devices could convert temperature gradient into electricity (Seebeck effect) and electric power into temperature gradient across the themoelectric element (Peltier effect). $Bi_2Te_3$ has been widely used as thermoelectric material for more than 40 years, due to the superior thermoelctric characteristics. However, Bi and Te materials are predicted to face supply shortage, giving strong necessity for the development of new thermoelctric materials. Based on the theoretical prediction, nanostructure are expected to give dramatic enhnacement of thermoelectirc characteristics by controlling phonon propagation. Thus, silicon, which had been considered as improper material for thermoelectricity, is now being considered as strong cadidate material for thermoelectricity. This review will focus on the nanotechnology applied research activities in silicon as thermoelectric materials.