Global Warming as a Solar Converter Problem: Solar Converters to Reverse Climate Change

Climate changes and its many associated impacts are one of the most critical global challenges. Photovoltaics has been instrumental in mitigation of CO2 through the generation of low carbon electricity. However, the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 °C increasingly requires additional approaches. The paper presents how PV surfaces can be designed to reverse the Earth's radiative imbalance from increasing atmospheric greenhouse gases which cause higher global temperatures. The new PV surfaces generate electricity, reflect sub-band gap radiation, minimize their temperature, generate thermal radiation and emit additional IR through the atmosphere. The key results are: (1) It is thermodynamically possible to reverse global temperature rise through the large-scale deployment of solar converters without requiring an increase in area compared to that predicted necessary for meeting clean electricity generation; (2) There is substantial scope in the properties of the solar converters that are deployed depending on where they are deployed (e.g., the albedo and emissivity of their surroundings); (3) The inclusion of reversing global warming as a goal for solar converters increases the need for high efficiency, radiatively efficient solar cells.