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

英国和印度都是推广太阳能的后起之秀，即太阳能直接发电，称为光伏发电（PV）。在英国，光伏发电被视为减少发电碳足迹的关键技术。如果要满足未来的建筑标准，这也是必要的，这将需要现场发电。PV是目前满足这个的唯一方法。DECC最近宣布了“太阳能战略”，旨在促进太阳能技术在现有建筑上的应用。在印度，光伏还有一个额外的好处，那就是它是一种高度可扩展的技术，可以用于支持电网基础设施，而且通过陆地太阳能发电场和BIPV部门，它的建设速度可能比传统发电厂更快。目前的APEX计划源于英国和印度政府的战略举措，他们共同确定太阳能在提供满足未来能源需求的解决方案方面具有重要意义。这一伙伴关系旨在结合两国的优势，提高两国的研究能力。APEX一直专注于开发利用激子太阳能电池（ESCs）的新型功能材料、器件结构、材料加工和光伏组件工程。这是一类基于有机纳米复合材料和染料敏化纳米晶TiO2材料的纳米结构太阳能电池。目前，液体结染料敏化太阳能电池（DSSC）和有机太阳能电池（OSC）的功率转换效率（PCE）分别达到了11.4%和9.2%。在追求实现高效固态DSSC的过程中，我们的牛津团队（Henry Snaith教授）最近取得了新的突破，他们使用钙钛矿太阳能电池实现了b> 17%的高效固态器件。因此，APEX团队享有卓越的，世界级的激子光伏技术能力。该项目的成功得益于其新颖性、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.