[Newton] Advancing the efficiency and production potential of excitonic solar cells (APEX), Phase- II

英国和印度都是太阳能推广的后起之秀，即直接从太阳发电，称为光伏（PV）。在英国，光伏被视为减少发电碳足迹的关键技术。如果要达到未来的建筑标准，这也是必要的，这将需要现场发电。到目前为止，PV是满足这一要求的唯一途径。DECC最近宣布了“太阳能战略”，旨在促进现有建筑物上太阳能技术的部署。在印度，光伏发电具有额外的好处，即它是一种高度可扩展的技术，可以部署以支持电网基础设施，并且实际上可以通过陆地太阳能农场和BIPV部门比传统发电厂更快地建造。目前的APEX计划源于英国和印度政府的战略举措，他们共同将太阳能确定为满足未来能源需求问题的重要解决方案。APEX一直专注于开发新的功能材料、器件结构、材料加工和利用激子太阳能电池（ESC）的光伏模块工程。这是一类基于有机纳米复合材料和染料敏化纳米TiO2材料的纳米结构太阳能电池。目前最先进的功率转换效率（PCE）数字已分别达到约11.4%和约9.2%，在液体结染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSC）和有机太阳能电池（OSC）。在追求实现高效率固态DSSC的过程中，最近通过我们的牛津小组（亨利斯奈思教授）已经建立了新的突破，该小组使用钙钛矿太阳能电池实现了>17%效率的固态器件。因此，APEX团队在激子光伏技术方面拥有世界一流的能力。该计划的成功得益于其新奇、创新性和尖端的研发能力。

UK and India are both rising stars in the promotion of Solar Energy viz. direct generation of electricity from the Sun called photovoltaics (PV). In the UK, PV is seen as a key technology to reduce the carbon footprint of electricity generation. It is also a necessity if future building standards are to be met, which will require on-site generation. PV is the only way to meet this to date. DECC has announced recently 'The Solar Strategy' which promotes the deployment of solar technologies on the existing buildings. In India PV has the added benefit that it is a highly scalable technology that can be deployed to support the grid infrastructure and indeed can be built possibly faster than conventional power plants through terrestrial solar farms and BIPV sectors. The current APEX program stems from the strategic move by the governments of the UK and India who jointly identified Solar Energy as an area of significance in providing solutions to the problem of meeting future energy needs. This partnership was aimed at linking the strengths of both countries to enhance the research capabilities of both nations.APEX had been focusing on the development of new functional materials, device structures, materials processing and engineering of photovoltaic modules utilising excitonic solar cells (ESCs). These are a class of nano-structured solar cells based on organic nano-composites and dye-sensitised nanocrystalline TiO2 materials. The current state-of-the-art power conversion efficiency (PCE) figures ~11.4% and ~9.2% has been achieved in liquid junction dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) and organic solar cells (OSC), respectively. In the pursuit of achieving high efficiency solid state DSSC, a new breakthrough has been established recently through our Oxford group (Prof. Henry Snaith) who achieved >17% efficient solid state devices using pervoskite solar cells. Thus, the APEX team enjoys the exceptional, world-class capability in Excitonic PV technology. The success of the program had been through its novelty, innovation and cutting edge R&D capability it possesses.