Researchers from the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering (SPREE) at UNSW Engineering will receive more than $29 million as funding for nine projects related to renewable energy.

Awarded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) under their R&D program to support research and development, and commercialisation activities that aim to significantly reduce the cost of solar, the grants will be used for projects across the Cells and Modules stream, and the Balance of System, Operations and Maintenance stream. Both streams have the potential to reduce the levelised cost of solar PV and improve cell and module efficiency.

UNSW will receive $29.3 million out of ARENA’s $41.5 million allocation for their R&D program.

Congratulating the UNSW researchers for securing more ARENA R&D funding than any other university in Australia, UNSW deputy vice-chancellor, Research & Enterprise, Professor Nicholas Fisk said: “UNSW researchers are clear leaders in the area of renewable energy R&D. The PERC solar cell, which today is embedded in almost 75 per cent of all solar panels in the world, was invented at UNSW. Professor Martin Green and his UNSW colleagues have today secured further funding to continue this exemplary research to improve the performance, lower the cost and improve the sustainability of commercial solar cells.”

“These awards announced today will further enable our researchers to help solve the world's shifting and dynamic energy needs as we move post-haste to a sustainable energy paradigm,” Prof Fisk said.

UNSW’s 9 renewable energy R&D projects:

Professor Nicholas Ekins-Daukes ($4.8 million) is leading a project that builds on a decade of singlet fission research by Professor Tim Schmidt, School of Chemistry, who is the scientific director of the research. The grant from ARENA will fund research into singlet fission solar cells. The project will use an established photophysical process known as singlet fission that can exceed 30 per cent efficiency and maintains low manufacturing cost.

Professor Bram Hoex ($3.7 million) is the lead CI on the ‘Optimal O&M-strategy and LCOE-modelling for ground-mounted PV’ project. The project aims to significantly improve solar power measurement and financial prediction for optimal performance. The project will be run in collaboration with industry partners Sun Cable, 5B and PV Lighthouse who have provided an additional $3.7 million in cash support.

Scientia Professor Martin Green ($3.7 million) is the lead CI on the ‘Rear-Junction p-type PERC/TOPCon Hybrid Solar Cells’ project. The project aims to improve the performance and lower the costs of commercial solar cells by combining two technologies originally conceived at UNSW – the commercially dominant PERC technology and a ‘tunnel-oxide-polysilicon-contact’, now known as TOPCon.

Scientia Fellow Associate Professor Brett Hallam ($3.3 million) is the lead CI on the ‘Silver-lean screen printing for sustainable low-cost industrial PV manufacturing at the terawatt scale’ project. This project addresses the most pressing issue for terawatt-scale solar – silver consumption, and builds on previous work and knowledge to develop a novel screen-printing approach to overcome limitations of conventional metallisation designs.

Professor Xiaojing Hao, ARC Future Fellow ($3.1 million) is the lead CI on the ‘Efficient and Stable Chalcogenide-Si tandem cells: integrating commercialised PV technologies’ project. The project aims to achieve the cost reduction of utility-scale solar PV by developing cutting-edge chalcogenide/silicon tandem cell technology. By working closely with world-leading chalcogenide and Si PV manufacturers, this project will provide next-generation, high-performance, durable and cost-effective tandem cells that can be rapidly scaled up.

Professor Thorsten Trupke ($2.8 million) is the lead CI on the ‘Daytime Inspection Solutions for Advanced Operation and Maintenance of Solar Farms’ project. The project aims to develop commercial inspection solutions, which will become part of routine operation and maintenance for solar farms, and will enable testing of crystalline silicon photovoltaic modules in utility-scale solar farms. The project includes Murdoch University as a research partner along with several industry partners.

Associate Professor Ziv Hameiri ($2.7 million) is the lead CI on the ‘Industrial high-throughput inspection methods for high-efficiency multijunction solar cells’ project. The project aims to develop advanced characterisation methods for the next generation of solar cells. The project brings together UNSW and leading PV companies to make solar cells even better.

Associate Professor Ziv Hameiri ($2.5 million) is the lead CI on the ‘Balance of System, Machine learning applications for utility-scale PV’ project. The project aims to develop an automated decision-making platform for the O&M of utility-scale PV power plants. The project brings UNSW together with a wide range of leaders in the areas of O&M, asset management and ownership of PV plants.

Scientia Fellow Associate Professor Brett Hallam ($2.4 million) is the lead CI for the ‘Low cost and sustainable PV systems for the terawatt scale’ project. A pressing issue for terawatt-scale deployment of PV systems is consumption of materials (silicon, copper, aluminium, steel and concrete), due to the sheer volume required and associated emissions. This project will use life cycle analysis and yield analysis, and calculate levelised cost of electricity to address material issues for the deployment and the associated impact on cost and the environment.

Image: Solar Panels at UNSW (Photo: UNSW)

Architecture & Design Team

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