In this presentation, I will review some of our work on novel nanostructured materials and new nanoscale physical phenomena related to the problem of high-efficiency conversion of solar light into electrical or chemical energy. Specifically, I will discuss topics such as carrier multiplication (multiple exciton generation by single photons), plasmonic and photonic effects for improved light harvesting, and exploratory device structures comprising nanocrystal quantum dots. I will also give a brief overview of our newly funded Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) for Advanced Solar Photophysics where some of these problems are being tackled.