UNSW

A research group led by Professor Martin Green has published Version 61 of the solar cell efficiency tables. The tables include a world record for a silicon heterojunction cell, announced by Longi earlier this week, as well as five more new results.

Pioneering PV researcher Martin Green has received an abundance of accolades over his 50-year career of fundamental solar research with teams at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). That contribution was further recognised on Sept. 26, when he picked up the WCPEC-8 Award in Milan, Italy. Green spoke with pv magazine about the role of technologies such as PERC cells and his efforts to advance non-toxic thin film semiconductors for the tandem cells of the future.

Australian research that has seen crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV technology takes its place in the mainstream of the global energy industry has been recognised by picking up Finland’s top technology award. The €1 million (AUD 1.55 million) Millennium Technology Prize has been awarded to UNSW Scientia Professor Martin Green, in recognition for his work in developing passivated emitter rear contact (PERC) technology – the mainstay cell of the modern solar industry.

A team of researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) has proposed a cost-effective way to recycle silicon solar panels. Their process consists of module deframing, laminate shredding and material concentration using electrostatic separation, reducing their original weight by 2% to 3%.

Google will be using Australian company Enosi’s technology to trace its energy use in Sydney, part of its journey towards time matched renewables – a far more ambitious and globally favoured standard.

A team of engineers from the University of New South Wales has taken inspiration from a bridge in South Korea to develop a new magnetically driven motor which has the potential to increase the range of electric vehicles.

A team of Australian researchers have developed a way to use rooftop solar PV to run air conditioners to pre-cool residential and commercial buildings. They have identified several factors that could help reduce a building’s energy costs.

Energy consumption – whether its heating your home, driving, oil refining or liquefying natural gas – is responsible for around 82% of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.

New research suggests we might be able to rethink the type of silicon needed to make high-efficiency solar cells, say researchers from the CSIRO, UNSW and Oxford University.

Research from renowned PV scientist Martin Green and colleagues at UNSW reveals that perovskite solar cells may struggle to deal with reverse-bias caused by uneven shading or other issues likely to appear in the field. Both the reverse-bias itself and resulting build up of heat can cause several of the materials commonly used in perovskite solar cells to degrade, and these issues have received only limited attention in research published to date. Solutions, however, are at hand.