Keynote Speaker
Biography
Martin Green is Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and Director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, involving five other Australian Universities and research groups. His group’s contributions to photovoltaics include inventing the PERC cell, now accounting for 90% of global production, and holding the silicon solar cell efficiency record for 30 of the last 39 years, regarded as a “Top Ten” milestone in solar photovoltaics history. Major international awards include the 1999 Australia Prize, the 2002 Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize, and most recently, the 2021 Japan Prize.
Recent Developments in Photovoltaics
Martin A. GREEN
Abstract
Over the last decade, the cost of photovoltaic solar energy conversion has dropped very dramatically with solar photovoltaics “now the cheapest source of electricity in most countries” and “now offering some of the lowest cost electricity ever seen”, according to the International Energy Agency. However, improvements are in the pipeline that are leading to an era of “insanely cheap” solar power, within the coming decade.
The developments leading to these cost reductions will be described as well as the pending improvements that will allow solar to continue on its trajectory to even lower future costs over the remainder of this decade.
An example of the impact of these cost reductions is included as Figure 1. This shows both the history of the lowest bids received internationally for the supply of electricity using photovoltaics under power purchase agreements (PPAs), as compiled by the author, together with the global average solar PPA contract, as compiled by IRENA [1]. These averages include systems such as in Japan where prices are incredibly high compared to other countries. Also shown, for comparison, are the lowest bids received at a 2016 Chilean auction for the supply from more traditional sources, as a reference.
Figure 1: History of solar photovoltaic electricity prices as revealed through PPA bids and contracts.
The rapid reduction in the lowest PPA bids post-2016 stem from the introduction of new photovoltaic technology, specifically the PERC cell (passivated emitter and rear cell) invented by the author and developed by his team. PERC now accounts for over 90% of global photovoltaic production, offering not only higher sunlight conversion efficiency but also new functionalities, such as bifacial operation allowing stray light on the module rear to be converted at essentially no extra cost. The lowest PPA bid received to date was US$10.40/MWh (1c/kWh!) in Saudi Arabia in 2021.
References
[1] IRENA (2022), Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2021, International Renewable Energy Agency, Abu Dhabi.