Main objective of the present work is to develop wide-band gap InGaN solar cells in the 2.4–2.9 eV range that can be an integral component of photovoltaic devices to achieve efficiencies greater than 50%. The III-nitride semiconductor material system, which consists of InN, GaN, AlN and their alloys, offers a substantial potential in developing ultra-high efficiency photovoltaics mainly due to its wide range of direct-band gap, and other electronic, optical and mechanical properties. However, this novel InGaN material system poses challenges from theoretical, as well as technological standpoints, which are further extended into the performance of InGaN devices. In the present work, these challenges are identified and overcome individually to build basic design blocks, and later, optimized comprehensively to develop high-performance InGaN solar cells. One of the major challenges from the theoretical aspect arises due to unavailability of a suitable modeling program for InGaN solar cells. As spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization can substantially influence transport of carriers in the III-nitrides, these phenomena are studied and incorporated at a source-code level in the PC1D simulation program to accurately model InGaN solar cells. On the technological front, InGaN with indium compositions up to 30% (2.5 eV band gap) are developed for photovoltaic applications by controlling defects and phase separation using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. InGaN with band gap of 2.5 eV is also successfully doped to achieve acceptor carrier concentration of 10¹⁸ cm⁻³. A robust fabrication scheme for III-nitride solar cells is established to increase reliability and yield; various schemes including interdigitated grid contact and current spreading contacts are developed to yield low-resistance Ohmic contacts for InGaN solar cells. Preliminary solar cells are developed using a standard design to optimize the InGaN material, where the band gap of InGaN is progressively lowered. Subsequent generations of solar cell designs involve an evolutionary approach to enhance the open-circuit voltage and internal quantum efficiency of the solar cell. The suitability of p-type InGaN with band gaps as low as 2.5 eV is established by incorporating in a solar cell and measuring an open-circuit voltage of 2.1 V. Second generation InGaN solar cell design involving a 2.9 eV InGaN p-n junction sandwiched between p- and n-GaN layers yields internal quantum efficiencies as high as 50%; while sixth generation devices utilizing the novel n-GaN strained window-layer enhance the open circuit voltage of a 2.9 eV InGaN solar cell to 2 V. Finally, key aspects to further InGaN solar cell research, including integration of various designs, are recommended to improve the efficiency of InGaN solar cells. These results establish the potential of III-nitrides in ultra-high efficiency photovoltaics.