Energy& Environmental Science Showcasing Research from the J. H. He Laboratory Supported by a National Research Program for Nanoscience and Technology in Taiwan. Title: Light Scattering by Nanostructured Anti-refl Ection Coatings Assumptions and the Levelized Cost of Energy for Photovoltaics

COVER ARTICLE Darling et al. Assumptions and the levelized cost of energy for photovoltaics HOT ARTICLE Shao-Horn et al. Enhanced oxygen reduction activity on surface-decorated perovskite thin fi lms for solid oxide fuel cells Understanding the eff ect of surface profi les of nanostructures on light scattering provides valuable information to optimize both the structure design and fabrication of nanostructure-based optoelectronic devices. This study contains the advances in light harvesting at the forefront of energy development. Photovoltaic electricity is a rapidly growing renewable energy source and will ultimately assume a major role in global energy production. The cost of solar-generated electricity is typically compared to electricity produced by traditional sources with a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) calculation. Generally, LCOE is treated as a definite number and the assumptions lying beneath that result are rarely reported or even understood. Here we shed light on some of the key assumptions and offer a new approach to calculating LCOE for photovoltaics based on input parameter distributions feeding a Monte Carlo simulation. In this framework, the influence of assumptions and confidence intervals becomes clear.