UNSW Sydney, Australia (UNSW Sydney) Photoscopic team led by Martin Green, the PERC technology first developed by the world's solar manufacturing industry is used by the world's solar energy manufacturing industry
More than 80% of the world's new solar cells are adopted by the PERC technology developed by Australia
In the past decade, the cost of converting sunlight into electricity has dropped by more than 90%. Solar energy is the cheapest way to generate new energy power in at present.
At present, solar energy helps us significantly reduce emissions at a strong competitive cost, but since solar energy provides less than 5% of the world's electricity, we still need a lot of improvements in this area to do.
Australia is likely to play a key role in global progress. For decades, Australia has been at the forefront of solar technology development and application. In the past 40 years, Australia has maintained a performance record of silicon solar cell for 30 years. Australia now has more solar energy deployment per capita than any other OECD country, meeting nearly 15% of their electricity needs. More than 80% of the world's new solar panels are solar cells based on PERC technology, which was successfully developed in Australia.
So what is the next step for solar energy? Hundreds of researchers across Australia focus on two goals: further cutting costs and leveraging incident sunlight to generate as much electricity as possible i.e., improve photovoltaic efficiency.
Why does solar energy need improvement?
Solar energy has the potential to change our industry, transportation and our lifestyles - if we develop this technology to the extreme.
Ultra-cheap electricity brings huge possibilities, from converting water into green hydrogen as energy storage or for industrial processes, to power for transportation, energy systems and everything else we use fossil fuels.
Last year, the Australian renewable energy agency proposed a vision of ultra-low cost solar energy. This goal is ambitious, but can be achieved.
The agency hopes that by 2030, the efficiency of commercial solar cells can be increased from the current 22% to 30%. It hopes to reduce large-scale system-wide costs (panel, inverter and transmission ) by 50% to $0.3 per watt.
This requires in-depth research. More than 250 Australian researchers are working towards these goals at the Australian Advanced Photovoltaic Centre, established by six universities and CSIRO.
Looking for new materials other than silicon
Solar cells can convert sunlight into electricity without moving parts. When sunlight shines on silicon materials commonly used in solar cells, its energy releases an electron that allows it to move in the material just as electrons move in wires or batteries.
The solar panels on your roof may start with sand in the desert, melted into silica , refined into silicon, and then refined into 99.999% purity polysilicon . This multifunctional material has been at the heart of solar success for decades. Importantly, it is scalable – from the size of the needle to an array covering a square kilometers.
But to absolutely maximize the sunlight shining on these panels, we need more than silicon. Silicon alone, we cannot achieve 30% efficiency.
Let’s take a look at the tandem battery - a solar sandwich. Since silicon can only absorb up to 34% of visible light, the researchers focused on adding layers of other materials to capture light at different wavelengths.
perovskite is an option. This material can be printed or coated from a liquid source, making it cheap to process. When we stack this material on silicon, we can see a huge leap in solar cell efficiency.
Although the prospects are promising, there are still some problems to be solved - specifically, how to ensure that perovskites can be used as we expected silicon plates for more than 20 years.
Researchers are also studying other materials such as polymers and chalcogen compounds, a common group of minerals including sulfides, showing promise in thin, flexible solar cells.
Any new material must not only be able to convert sunlight into electrons well, but also have rich reserves, low prices, and stable enough to ensure long life in the earth's crust. For example, chalcogen compounds are composed of common elements such as copper, tin, zinc and sulfur. If
can achieve 30% efficiency, it will bring huge benefits. The cost of building a large solar power plant will be greatly reduced. With more efficient solar cells, the same power output requires fewer panels and less land.
world top expert in silicon solar cells, Martin Green, professor of outstanding at the University of New South Wales, Sydney,
