The recent technical, commercial, and market progress of photovoltaics (PV) has been amazing. This presentation overviews the advancement of PV technology, highlighting how innovation has been foundational to its growth. Over the past 70 years, PV has advanced from a research curiosity to a valid electric power source. PV has emerged as a world's primary electric power candidate to meet economic, reliability, climate, and versatility expectations. In early 2022, the world cumulative installations surpassed 1-TW. Two years later, PV reached 2-TW. And just 1-year after, the technology surpassed 3 TW in 2025. The presentation provides some insights (many personal) to the history of modern photovoltaics over its >7 decades. PV has encountered and surmounted technical, investment, competition, and political barriers, and it is now embedded in our global electrical power structure going forward. The status and future expectations of solar PV are discussed--emphasizing that PV is now too important to slow; too strong to stop. Some issues with the accelerated introduction of more complex devices into commercial markets are discussed. Innovation in the entire value chain from materials development through system diversity continues . . . and is driving this technology toward its next levels to meet the expanding requirements for our energy future.

Brief Bio:

Dr. Lawrence L. Kazmerski is currently Fellow with Renewnable and Sustainable Energy Institute (RASEI), University of Colorado Boulder and Emeritus Research Staff Member of the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR, previously NREL). Dr. Kazmerski served as the founding Director of the National Center for Photovoltaics for the period 1999-2008 and Executive Director for Technology Partnerships (2009-2013) in his 38 years at the Laboratory. He received his B.S.E.E. (1967), M.S.E.E. (1968), and his Ph.D. degree (1970) in electrical engineering—all from the University of Notre Dame. He was on the electrical engineering faculty of the University of Maine before coming to SERI (later re-christened NREL) in 1977 as the first staff member in photovoltaics. Currently, he is involved with PV reliability R&D with projects in Brazil and collaborations in India. He has had visiting faculty appointments at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais (Brazil) and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, APS, AVS, and ASES. He serves as a Fulbright Scholar, and is a Member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and Foreign Member of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.