Australia’s Crucial Role In Affordable Rooftop Solar

[embedded content]

[embedded content]

If it wasn’t for Australian research and innovation, solar panels might not yet be as affordable as they are today. SolarQuotes founder Finn Peacock briefly explains why.

Transcript begins —

Let’s take a look at Australia’s incredible solar history. The modern solar panel was effectively invented in Australia by a team at the University of New South Wales led by a Dr. Martin Green¹. Martin Green set up a small research team in Sydney in the early eighties with an aim of improving the efficiency of solar cells. That team took the efficiency of a solar cell up to 25%. Since the team was founded, it has held the solar cell efficiency record for 30 of the last 38 years.

Also in 1983, Martin Green personally invented the PERC² solar cell. Now, this type of solar cell is currently found in 90% of panels produced today.

The team is currently working on stacking silicon cells on top of each other, and they’re aiming to get to 40% efficiency at the cell level – insane!

But not only did Martin Green do all that with the underlying solar technology, his research students went on to found and lead many of the multi-billion dollar solar companies that nailed low cost solar panel production in China; dropping the cost of solar panels over 95%. Without Martin Green and his researchers in Sydney, we wouldn’t have the low-cost, high-performance solar today companies like Tindo Solar can make for our homes.

— Transcript ends

This segment was from SolarQuotes TV Episode 11: The Australian-Made Solar Edition – showcasing Australian researchers and manufacturers transforming the global renewable energy scene with their technologies.

More On Martin Green

Among the many accolades Professor Green – aka “the father of photovoltaics” – has received was the very prestigious Japan Prize  in the field of “Resources, Energy, the Environment, and Social Infrastructure” this year.

As Finn mentioned, Professor Green has been a mentor to many. He has supervised more than 120 PhD students over the course of his long career; one of those being Shi Zhengrong. Mr. Shi knocked on the Professor’s door in 1989 looking for work, but was instead offer a scholarship to do PV research.

Dr. Shi went on to found solar panel manufacturer Suntech³ and more recently Sunman Energy; which produces flexible solar panels that are a fraction of the weight of their conventional counterparts.

Commenting on the evolution of solar power, in January this year Professor Green said:

“‘Early in my career, solar was interesting but terribly expensive. Now it embodies the long-standing hope of an abundant, inexpensive renewable resource.’”

The cost per kilowatt of rooftop solar in Australia has dropped from around $15 a watt prior to 2008 to around 95c a watt in November 2021 according to the SolarQuotes Australian Solar Price Index. I remember paying $1,000 for a 100W Suntech panel for an off-grid setup back in 2008 – so, $10 a watt. You can pick up a 100W module for around a hundred bucks nowadays.

That Australian research played such an important role making installing solar more accessible to so many people is something we can all be very proud of.

Original Source: https://www.solarquotes.com.au/blog/australian-solar-research-mb2283/