Roadmap on established and emerging photovoltaics for sustainable energy conversion
Abstract Photovoltaics (PVs) are a critical technology for curbing growing levels of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, and meeting increases in future demand for low-carbon electricity. In order to fulfil ambitions for net-zero carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2eq) emissions worldwide, the global cumulative capacity of solar PVs must increase by an order of magnitude from 0.9 TWp in 2021 to 8.5 TWp by 2050 according to the International Renewable Energy Agency, which is considered to be a highly conservative estimate. In 2020, the Henry Royce Institute brought together the UK PV community to discuss the critical technological and infrastructure challenges that need to be overcome to address the vast challenges in accelerating PV deployment. Herein, we examine the key developments in the global community, especially the progress made in the field since this earlier roadmap, bringing together experts primarily from the UK across the breadth of the photovoltaics community. The focus is both on the challenges in improving the efficiency, stability and levelized cost of electricity of current technologies for utility-scale PVs, as well as the fundamental questions in novel technologies that can have a significant impact on emerging markets, such as indoor PVs, space PVs, and agrivoltaics. We discuss challenges in advanced metrology and computational tools, as well as the growing synergies between PVs and solar fuels, and offer a perspective on the environmental sustainability of the PV industry. Through this roadmap, we emphasize promising pathways forward in both the short- and long-term, and for communities working on technologies across a range of maturity levels to learn from each other.
Funding
Novel Manufacturing for Resource Efficient Electrochemical Storage (NoRESt)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
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Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...TREFCO (No. P/W019167/1
Royal Society of Chemistry (No. R23-5618510760)
Research Fellowship scheme (No. RF\201819\18\38)
Charged oxide inversion layer (COIL) solar cells
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...Pnictogen-based semiconductors for Harvesting EneRgy from Ambient Light to power autonomous Devices (HERALD)
UK Research and Innovation
Find out more...Royal Academy of Engineering through the Research Fellowships scheme (No. RF\201718\17101)
Instilling Defect-Tolerance in ABZ2 Photovoltaic Materials
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...The Royal Society and Tata Group (UF150033)
Affordable Perovskite Solar Irrigation Systems for Small-holder Farmers in Ethiopia (APSISSFE)
UK Research and Innovation
Find out more...High-Efficiency Flexible and Scalable Halide-Perovskite Solar Modules
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...The European Research Council (ERC) (No. 756962 [HYPERION])
The Leverhulme Trust (No. RPG-2020-377)
Capacitance spectroscopy led process innovations to improve VOC in CdTe thin film solar cells
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...New designs for thin film solar cells
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...Bandgap engineering for optimal antimony chalcogenide solar cells
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...Perfecting Halide Perovskites: From Precursor Ink Chemistry to Defect Control
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...Unveiling electron motion at surfaces and interfaces on ultrashort length and ultrafast time scales
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...All-Evaporated Triple-Junction Perovskite Photovoltaic Devices
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...Application Targeted and Integrated Photovoltaics - Enhancing UK Capability in Solar
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...GENERATION: Self Powered IoT for People and Planet
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...All-perovskite Multi-junction Solar Cells
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft (DFG) under the HIPSTER project
The EPSRC project ATIP (No. EP/TO28513/1)
The Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship (No. ECF-2022-445)
Royal Society of Edinburgh International Joint Project 1787.
Department for Science Innovation and Technology: The National Measurement System (NMS) programme
The Royal Society through the University Research Fellowship (No. URF\R1\191286), Research Grant 2021 (No. RGS\R1\211321)
Photocapacitors for Ambient Energy Applications
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its Defence Innovation Fund TLB Ideas Scheme: The ViTAL Living Lab (61182036)
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (No. RS-2023-00257494)
EPSRC (No. EP/X52556X/1)
The European Research Council (No. 742708 (CAPACITY))
NERC, UK (No. NE/2451429)
Technology critical metal recycling using ultrasonics and catalytic etchants
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...Green Energy-Optimised Printed ICs
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...Design rules for defect-tolerant photovoltaics
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...Royal Society University Research Fellowship (No. URF-R1-191292)
Metal halide semiconductors: materials discovery beyond ABX3 perovskites
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...Advanced Device Concepts for Next-Generation Photovoltaics
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...MATERIALS CHEMISTRY HIGH END COMPUTING CONSORTIUM
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Find out more...TREFCO (No. P/W019167/1)
St John’s College Cambridge (Title A Research Fellowship),
Winton Programme for the Physics of Sustainability
History
School
- Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering
Published in
Journal of Physics: EnergyVolume
6Issue
4Publisher
IOP Publishing LtdVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Rights holder
© The AuthorsPublisher statement
Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.Acceptance date
2024-08-27Publication date
2024-10-11Copyright date
2024eISSN
2515-7655Publisher version
Language
- en