After summarizing the essential features of an idealized model of the Si/SiO2 interface, we discuss first-principles EMTO calculations of the electronic structure of SiO2 supercells and Si/SiO2 superlattices containing periodic arrays of noninteracting localized defects. Among the defects investigated were Si and O interstitials and vacancies; interstitial O2, SiO, and H2O molecules; and substitutional Al-interstitial H complexes. As an application of these theoretical studies, we suggest an interpretation of the U-shaped continuum of localized interface states which is often derived from experimental measurements of suitably processed Si/SiO2 interfaces.