Application Targeted and Integrated Photovoltaics - Enhancing UK Capability in Solar

太阳能光伏（PV）技术正在成为全球可再生能源的主要来源，国际能源署预测，到2024年，它将成为可再生能源的最大贡献者。在太阳能资源丰富的地区建设大型光伏电站，以及在家庭和工业场所的屋顶上部署所谓的分布式光伏电站，推动了这种吸收。迄今为止，主要的光伏技术是基于晶体半导体硅。硅光伏板的生产已经商品化，可以进行大规模生产，在不到十年的时间里，成本降低了十倍。我们的研究解决了下一代印刷光伏技术，该技术可以提供比c-Si或传统化合物半导体更大的功能和加工灵活性的太阳能，使可调谐设计满足当前光伏技术无法达到的市场应用要求。特别是，我们寻求基于有机和钙钛矿半导体的光伏发电，这些材料可以从溶液加工成最简单的太阳能电池结构，从而降低制造成本和蕴含的能量。这些新技术仍处于发展的早期阶段，许多基础的科学和工程挑战仍有待解决。这些挑战将是我们研究议程的重点，因为目前还没有最佳的技术解决方案，但需要诸如重量轻、灵活的形状因素、可调谐的光谱响应或半透明等属性的特定应用的太阳能电池的开发也是如此。这些都是有机和钙钛矿太阳能光伏的独特卖点，但超出了传统技术的性能（通常是成本）范围。我们的具体目标领域是用于高价值通信的电源（例如用于无人机的电池集成太阳能电池），以及用于建筑环境的改进能源和资源效率的电源（包括太阳能窗和用于“物联网”设备的本地电源）。从本质上讲，我们寻求将光伏的范围和应用扩展到提供固定能源之外。为了实现我们雄心勃勃的研究和技术发展议程，我们在斯旺西大学、伦敦帝国理工学院和牛津大学组建了三个世界知名的下一代光伏研究小组。所有人都是领域领导者，集合的团队跨越基础和应用科学和工程，需要回答突出的基本问题，并减少下一代光伏技术的实践。我们的研究项目名为“应用目标集成光伏”，也涉及整个光伏供应链的工业合作伙伴——光伏技术的早期制造商、组件供应商和了解技术和成本要求以交付可行产品的大型最终用户。该计划的主要动机是明确需要减少我们经济和社会的二氧化碳排放，我们的目标部门在这方面具有高度优先和潜力。对于英国来说，在下一代可再生能源领域保持国际竞争力（和形象）也很重要。作为我们议程的一部分，我们将确保培训具备必要的多学科技能的科学家和工程师，并与新兴产业及其需求密切相关，以确保英国在下一代光伏领域保持领先地位。

Solar photovoltaic (PV) technology is becoming a major source of renewable energy around the globe, with the International Energy Agency predicting it to be the largest contributor to renewables by 2024. This uptake is driven by the building of large PV power plants in regions of high solar resource, and also by the deployment of so-called distributed PV on the roofs of homes and industrial sites. The dominant PV technology to date has been based upon the crystalline semiconductor silicon. The production of silicon PV panels has been commoditised for large-scale manufacturing with costs reducing by a factor of ten in under a decade.Our research addresses the next generation of printed PV technologies which could deliver solar energy with far greater functional and processing flexibility than c-Si or traditional compound semiconductors, enabling tuneable design to meet the requirements of market applications inaccessible to current PV technologies. In particular, we seek to advance photovoltaics based upon organic and perovskite semiconductors - materials which can be processed from solution into the simplest possible solar cell structures, hence reducing cost and embodied energy from the manufacturing. These new technologies are still in the early stages of development with many fundamental scientific and engineering challenges still to be addressed. These challenges will be the foci of our research agenda, as will the development of solar cells for specific applications for which there is currently no optimal technological solution, but which need attributes such as light weight, flexible form factor, tuned spectral response or semi-transparency. These are unique selling points of organic and perovskite solar PV but fall outside the performance (and often cost) windows of the traditional technologies. Our specific target sectors are power for high value communications (for example battery integratable solar cells for unmanned aerial vehicles), and improved energy and resource efficiency power for the built environment (including solar windows and local for 'internet of things' devices). In essence we seek to extend the reach and application of PV beyond the provision of stationary energy. To deliver our ambitious research and technology development agenda we have assembled three world-renowned groups in next generation PV researchers at Swansea University, Imperial College London and Oxford University. All are field leaders and the assembled team spans the fundamental and applied science and engineering needed to answer both the outstanding fundamental questions and reduce the next generation PV technology to practise. Our research programme called Application Targeted Integrated Photovoltaics also involves industrial partners from across the PV supply chain - early manufacturers of the PV technology, component suppliers and large end users who understand the technical and cost requirements to deliver a viable product. The programme is primarily motivated by the clear need to reduce CO2 emissions across our economies and societies and our target sectors are of high priority and potential in this regard. It is also important for the UK to maintain an internationally competitive capability (and profile) in the area of next generation renewables. As part of our agenda we will be ensuring the training of scientists and engineers equipped with the necessary multi-disciplinary skills and closely connected to the emerging industry and its needs to ensure the UK stays pre-eminent in next generation photovoltaics.