Subwavelength nanostructures enable the manipulation and molding of light in nanoscale dimensions. This talk will first discuss the opportunities for enhancing photovoltaic performance using nanophotonic design, with a focus on recent work addressing luminescent solar concentrators. The combination of narrow band light emitting nanocrystals with wavelength-selective photonic materials enables high concentration ratios while capturing diffuse, rather than direct, sunlight and thereby improves photovoltaic performance. The second part of the talk will focus on the fabrication and design of chiral metamaterials. Chiral assemblies of plasmonic nanostructures exhibit stronger chiroptical responses than molecular systems, and offer the ability to tune and control the chiroptical response. I will discuss strategies to tune and switch the sign of the circular dichroism spectrum in coupled plasmonic assemblies, discussing both self-assembled systems created via DNA-directed assembly of plasmonic nanostructures and systems constructed using multi-layer electron beam lithography where the sign of the chiroptical response is reversed through manipulation of the hybridized plasmonic modes. These chiral assemblies may find application as nanoscale rulers with potential applications in metamaterials and biological sensing.