Solar Energy
States,” Professor Snaith said. “Thus far the UK has thought about solar energy purely in terms of building new solar farms, but the real growth will come from commercialising innovations – we very much hope that the newly-created British Energy will direct its attention to this.” “Supplying these materials will be a fast- growth new industry in the global green economy and we have shown that the UK is innovating and leading the way scientifically. However, without new incentives and a better pathway to convert this innovation into manufacturing the UK will miss the opportunity to lead this new global industry,” Professor Snaith added.
The multi-junction approach to stacking thin-film perovskite captures more of the light spectrum, increasing the amount of solar electricity that can be generated.
more sustainably and cheaply by using existing buildings, vehicles, and objects.
The researchers believe their approach will continue to reduce the cost of solar and also make it the most sustainable form of renewable energy. Since 2010, the global average cost of solar electricity has fallen by almost 90%, making it almost a third cheaper than that generated from fossil fuels. Innovations promise additional cost savings as new materials, like thin-film perovskite, reduce the need for silicon panels and purpose-built solar farms.
“We can envisage perovskite coatings being applied to broader types of surface to generate cheap solar power, such as the roof of cars and buildings and even the backs of mobile phones. If more solar energy can be generated in this way, we can foresee less need in the longer term to use silicon panels or build more and more solar farms,” Dr Wang added.
The researchers are among 40 scientists working on photovoltaics led by Professor of Renewable Energy Henry Snaith at Oxford University Physics Department. Their pioneering work in photovoltaics and especially the use of thin-film perovskite began around a decade ago and benefits from a bespoke, robotic laboratory. Their work has strong commercial potential and has already started to feed through into applications across the utilities, construction, and car manufacturing industries.
Oxford PV, a UK company spun out of Oxford University Physics in 2010 by co-founder and chief scientific officer Professor Henry Snaith to commercialise perovskite photovoltaics, recently started large-scale manufacturing of perovskite photovoltaics at its factory in Brandenburg- an-der-Havel, near Berlin, Germany. This is the world’s first volume manufacturing line for ‘perovskite-on-silicon’ tandem solar cells. “We originally looked at UK sites to start manufacturing but the government has yet to match the fiscal and commercial incentives on offer in other parts of Europe and the United
Source:
www.ox.ac.uk
ewnews.co.uk
October 2024 electrical wholesaler | 27
Image Credit: Oxford University Physics
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